If there were any remaining doubts about Joe Root being the latest, and worthy, successor to a tradition of polished but remorselessly efficient Yorkshire batsmanship whose jewels were Herbert Sutcliffe and Sir Len Hutton, they were eliminated yesterday at Lord's.

The 22-year-old batted throughout the third day of the second Ashes Test to finish 178 not out. England's objectives were clearly to accumulate runs and occupy the crease, maximising Australia's misery in unforgiving conditions, exhausting their dangerous bowlers and pushing them towards humiliation.

"I was trying to bat for as long as I could," Root said. "We had to battle through in the morning, then reap the rewards towards the end of the day."

Root had started on 18 not out and just over half, 81, of the runs he scored during the day came between tea and the close as he and Ian Bell accelerated against tiring bowlers. His international career is less than a year old, but will surely extend for a further decade or more.

Root appeared to be heckled at one stage by Australia's Shane Watson, but said to laughter that his younger brother, Billy, acting as England's 12th man, had been "much nastier", adding: "He was telling me how slowly I was scoring and that he would have been smacking it around."

England ended the day with a lead of 596. While the first eight days of this series are a warning against proclaiming impossible any eventuality, Australia chasing down whatever target Alastair Cook finally chooses to set them would dwarf any of the unlikely feats already seen.

Australian fast bowler Peter Siddle said he expected England to bat on before leaving Australia most of two days to bat.

"However long we have to bat, that's just how it will be and what you've got to do," he said.

England followed through ruthlessly on the logic of their decision not to enforce the follow-on when Australia subsided to 128 all out on Friday. There was no further hint of the vulnerability seen that evening, when Siddle shot out Cook, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen.

Instead, they ground away relentlessly, losing only two wickets for the addition of 302 runs. There were hints of the grimly attritional cricket of the 1950s and 1960s, notably in the first 90 minutes after lunch when 28 runs were added in 20 overs.

But the grind paved the way for a ferocious assault after tea as Root – who reached his second Test century, completed from 247 balls spread across 344 minutes – and Bell flogged tiring bowlers. England added 162 runs between tea and the close as Michael Clarke chose to spare his tired, but still potentially dangerous, pace bowlers by declining to take the second new ball.

The two England batsmen to lose their wickets departed in a similar manner, caught by Chris Rogers at mid-on, and with the same air of self-recrimination. Tim Bresnan, an unexpected night watchman on Friday evening, bats well enough to have legitimate aspirations to the place on the Lord's honours board awarded to Test century-makers and was clearly furious with himself when his three-hour vigil was curtailed on 38.

Bell had still more reason to dream as he glided elegantly towards the rare feat of a second century in the same match – and a third in a row – before subsiding dejectedly on to his haunches as his misjudged shot cut him off 26 runs short of his ambition.

But there was some justice in his falling short. He appeared to have been caught by Steve Smith at third slip when still in single figures, only to be reprieved by the inability of the on-field umpires to reach a decision and a questionable close call by television umpire Tony Hill.

And his achievement of a second century might have diverted attention from Root, unquestionably the day's central figure.