England beat Sri Lanka by 57 runs in the second Test match at Pallekele and clinched the series with one Test to go. On a turning track, England opted to bat first and scored 290 runs in the first innings and in reply Sri Lanka managed 336 runs and took a lead of 46 runs.

In the second innings captain Joe Root led from the front and played an awesome knock of 124 runs. Ben Foakes (65*) and Jos Buttler (34) also helped them to set a target of 301 runs for the hosts. In the chase of 301 runs Dimuth Karunaratne (57) and Angelo Mathews (88) put up a good fight but their efforts weren't enough to take Sri Lanka over the line and suffered a 57 runs loss.

Spinner Jack Leach and Moeen Ali took 5 and 4 wickets respectively in the fourth innings. Joe Root was named Man of the Match for his match-winning hundred.

All the major stats and facts from the second Test between Sri Lanka and England in Pallekele :

England's 2-0* series win 

- First Test series win away from home since South Africa (2015-16)
- First Test series win in Asia since India (2012)
- First Test series win in Sri Lanka since 2001
- First away Test series win for Joe Root as captain

3 - Joe Root became the third England captain after Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan to score a Test hundred in Sri Lanka. 

Jack Leach 5/83 in the fourth innings -

- His first five-wicket haul in Test cricket.
- 10th England spinner to take a five wickets haul in the fourth innings of a Test away from home.
- First England spinner to take a 5-fer in the fourth innings of an away Test since Graeme Swann's 5/127 against Bangladesh at Chittagong in 2010. 

17 - England won a Test series in Sri Lanka after 17 years. Last time they beat the hosts by 2-1 in a 3 Tests series in 2001.

19 - England spinners Mooen Ali, Jack Leach, Adil Rashid, and Joe Root took 19 out of 20 wickets combinedly in this Test match. The last time Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann took 19 wickets combinedly in Mumbai Test against India in 2012.

51.47 - Angelo Mathews's batting average in the fourth innings of Test. He has scored 875 runs at this average with one hundred and six fifties in the fourth innings of Test. 

57 - England's 57 runs win is their smallest Test win in terms of runs against Sri Lanka. The previous smallest was by 137 runs at Lord's in August 1991.

Joe Root 124 runs -

- 15th Test hundred of his career
- 4th Test hundred as captain
- 4th Test hundred away from home
- 2nd Test hundred in Asia
- Highest individual score by an England captain in Sri Lanka