Joe Root had never spent more than five balls stuck on 99. But as he inside-edged over his stumps, wore one on the front pad and found fielders instead of gaps, a palpable anxiety swelled around Lord's.
The crowd "ooohed" and "aaahed" through 12 balls of stasis. Some were for the sake of it, others genuinely fearful this could be an insurmountable bump in what had been an otherwise smooth road. It had the feel of a pantomime, all told. But with typical impish nonchalance, Root showed the only thing behind him was the deep-third boundary, which he found with a neat dab through a thinly stretched cordon for his 33rd Test century.
If your tally of hundreds equals your age, you're not just doing something right, you're doing something great. Considering Root had just 17 when he turned 30 on December 30, 2020, it has been quite the run of form. Not since Michael Caine became a staple of Christopher Nolan's work has someone looked so at ease embarking on a blockbuster run in the latter part of their career.
As with all of Root's centuries, the ensuing celebration offered context. There's always a clenched fist involved, but his other antics tend to reflect the circumstances in which he's just delivered. When that fist is extra tight - pumped at first, then swung overhand and back to himself once more - you can tell he's just produced a slump-busting knock. When he's turned the tide of a contest with one of his worldies, there's often a skip involved. And then there's the more subdued pump before raising his helmet and bat to the balcony with barely a smile across his face. That's when you know there's more business to tend to.
This time, it was different. A single hand in the air as he ran towards the Pavilion as those two overs' worth of tension were broken with some serene timing and a hint of "what you worried about?" It looked like he was playing to the gantry. But Root was worried, too.
"I was a little bit twitchy," he admitted at stumps. "You can't not hear the crowd. It was there, definitely… but there is an element of relief once you cross the line and you can concentrate on what's important."
What was important was giving England their strongest position, which was going to take a bit of work given how things had begun. The top three's donation of their wickets to Sri Lanka was unnecessary. Dhananjaya de Silva neither looked up at the blue skies nor down at the freshly shaved pitch when he decided to bowl first. It looked a peculiar choice, before Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett gifted him varying degrees of vindication, all of which Root steadily had to reclaim.
He did not think much of being out there in the 10th over at 42 for 2. Or rather, he saw it as no extra burden or a situation requiring a hero. He never does. Throughout his career, his work has come with a sense of civilian duty.
But, of course, it's different with him. Just as Clark Kent can do all the things Superman does without having to ditch his spectacles, Root can hit world-class levels without shedding his everyman disposition. It felt prescient that even as Duckett, Harry Brook and Jamie Smith showed their qualities alongside Root in stands of 40, 48 and 62, respectively, the newer kids on the block were left to admire the master in their midst scale peaks they will probably never reach. Peaks Root did not even consider possible when he started out back in 2012.
"I just remember walking out in my first Test thinking 'if this is my one and only opportunity to play for England, I'd be extremely proud'," Root said. "It's nice to be sat here having achieved what I've achieved, but I feel like there's still quite a lot more to do. At some point I'm sure I'll look back on it all and try to take it all in, but there's more to come hopefully."
That Root equalled Alastair Cook's tally of 33 centuries and jumped ahead of his former captain's volume of runs in England felt particularly valuable on this occasion. Thursday's near-full house did not seem to know what to expect and buzzed accordingly, almost indifferent to what was unfolding in front of them until Root offered them this latest slice of history.
Sri Lanka's valiant performance in the first Test, while welcome, felt like their ceiling. This place usually hums with idle conversation, but those seemed a little louder and more distracted once the early tuts had subsided. It was the breaking for the odd "Roooooooooot" to mark his 18 boundaries that kept them involved.
Root did not just provide comfort for the dressing-room and those at the other end - Gus Atkinson being the latest example with a maiden Test fifty that could morph into something greater on day two - but he served the masses his usual brand of entertainment, which is bankable at this ground. His name will now feature on the honours board for a sixth time.
Root's longevity is reflected in the fact that since that first cap at Nagpur in December 2012, he has played 145 Tests - more than anyone else, and 30 more than Stuart Broad in second. Of course, England do play the format more than anyone else - to a fault, really - but it is as much a measure of his mental and physical robustness as his talent.
The three runs from Atkinson's tuck down to fine leg that took England to 301 was down to Root's willingness to sprint in the 75th over. And his dismissal was, ultimately, down to his desire to shift up a gear before the close. The only shame was that Root's demise came through the infamous ramp shot.
Milan Rathnayake was there to been taken advantage of, particularly with the shorter hit over the shoulder, down towards the Allen Stand. The stickers met the ball rather than the middle, with Pathum Nissanka taking a straightforward catch at point.
The new ball was 2.3 overs away. Sri Lanka were weary. What were you thinking, Joe?
"Look, I've got out to it a few times and I know you look a bit silly but it brings a lot of runs. We were in a period of the game where they've got three seamers. If you can put one of them under a huge amount of pressure going into that second new ball, it makes life very difficult for the last hour.
"I tried to look at things as an opportunity, not as a threat, and if it goes for four or six then it's on for the last hour to cash in."
Thankfully, Atkinson and Matthew Potts did just that. Their unbroken stand of 50 has England coming back on Friday on 358 for 7, still on course for a bumper first-innings total.
No doubt there will be plenty bemoaning the shot, a week after he sconed himself in the helmet with a similar effort in Manchester. But he does seem at peace with the failures. "Sometimes you get a good one and you have to take it on the chin!" he joked at first when addressing the dismissal.
More pertinently, Root is on the cusp of becoming the standout batter in English history, and he has his sights set on more. "It's nice to be sat here having achieved what I've achieved but I feel like there's still quite a lot more to do."
Discourse never dies, but brilliance endures. And Root wants to endure.