A historic 34th, putting him above every other England Test batter. The quickest of his haul, coming in at 111 deliveries. And yet, on a day where English cricket celebrated Joe Root, this Test century felt a lot like the others.
It was very Root to make a largely unremarkable scenario unmissable by wedding history with a career-best (he also now has centuries in both innings for the first time). England had begun their third innings late on Friday evening boasting a lead of 235 over Sri Lanka. Saturday was so overcast the floodlights were in play from the off. And yet, Root's entry in the fourth over of day three brightened the gloom and brought more value to those who were short-changed by 67.3 overs of play at Lord's.
Watching Root at the crease always has the feel of exceptionally good background music, and this was no different. It was soothing, uplifting, high-calibre, low fuss as you waited for an appointment with jeopardy that never came. He never quite demanded your attention, but was still able to grab it and leave an impression on you forever. As the rest of the world was preoccupied watching their numbers on a screen slowly tick down, Root's on the ones atop the Allen Stand were moving sharply in the other direction.
Every crouch over, double tap of the bat and move back upright brought its usual expectation - even more so after he edged Lahiru Kumara through a vacant second slip on just 2. He rotated the strike and yet somehow always seemed to be on strike. He'd cut late and pull early, finding gaps even after Dhananjaya de Silva had sought to cover where previous versions of those shots had gone.
He danced down to plant Prabath Jayasuriya into the advertising hoardings in front of the Pavilion, then reverse swept the left-arm spinner after conventional sweeps had seen midwicket plugged. Neither seemed particularly risky but still elicited awe.
Even when a bumper-vs-pull-shot contest tended towards a stalemate, Root made room to carve through cover to take him to a seventh century at Lord's. Kumara bowled that particular short ball, having tagged in for Asitha Fernando, who Root had worn down on the way. Despite laser focus on his primary mission, he still had time for sidequests.
Making the routine remarkable has always been typically Root. Even the ramp shot - which he missed again here - has an oddly rudimentary feel. But the reactions to Saturday's feat hinted of much more.
A leap at the non-striker's end was followed by a raise of the bat and a kiss blown towards his wife and two kids in the ECB box. His father was at the steps of the pavilion to hug him as he walked off. Root admitted he almost blanked him completely. Presumably, because he was busy chastising himself for holing out to deep square leg.
Alastair Cook, who had just been passed as the previous leading English centurion , was commentating live on BBC Test Match Special for the moment. "It's absolutely right he should have the record on his own," beamed someone who built a hall-of-fame career on never ceding his ground.
Hundred No. 34 comes with its own bigger-picture neatness. From his debut in Nagpur at the age of 21, Root had notched 17 centuries by the time he turned 30, on December 30, 2020. That tally has since doubled.
The annual schedule has been unrelenting either side of that landmark birthday. But the enforced pause due to Covid-19 allowed Root to get off the "hamster wheel" momentarily and lay his game out in front of him. And it is that pause he attributes to this startling period of success.
"I had a deep dive into what my strengths were, where I was making mistakes, and how could I eradicate them and become a more rounded player off the back of it?" he said after play.
Not all of the tweaks were technical or necessarily related to adopting a more ruthless mindset: "Can you create certain angles to certain bowlers, or try and take modes of dismissal out of the game? And I guess just having a different way of looking at things has opened a few doors for me."
Well, Joe, it has worked. Not only is he averaging 56.92 since turning 30, but his fifty-to-hundred conversion rate has gone from 34.47% to 53.13%
It is not strictly maturity considering he credits a more expressive environment under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, which encourages the inner child to be let loose. But it does seem to have emanated from a personal, inner peace. So much of Root's early struggles could be attributed to a search for perfection. Now he has come to terms with the fact that it probably doesn't exist.
What does exist, however, in a sport that preys on your imperfections, are moments when Test cricket occasionally bends to your whims and morphs into an opportunity for greatness rather than a threat to it.
"I think that's what you try and get to is that even when it's not feeling perfect, you can still manage the game. You never know what's going to happen next and you just got to keep giving yourself the best chance by putting the work in behind the scenes but just enjoying the times when it's going nicely."
While it is going nicely, more history beckons. Root is 96 away from usurping Cook's overall tally as England's all-time Test runscorer, which would move him fifth on the all-time list. Given the volume of Test cricket England play, the physical (and fiscal) management of their star talent and the enthusiasm still coursing through Root's veins, "probable" replaces "possible" in the idle conversation of whether he can make up the 3,555 runs needed to beat Sachin Tendulkar's record of 15,921.
Other quests remain, namely a hundred in Australia, ideally during an Ashes success. That remains the ambition for the team as a whole, but it is predicated on this iteration of Root.
Maybe only then will Root come close to the perfection he once sought. But if those boxes remain unticked, his value to English cricket will not be diminished. Even before Saturday at Lord's confirmed it in one metric, the truth has long been indisputable - Root is the most accomplished batter England have ever been lucky enough to call their own.