The clock was ticking towards midnight when this match finally ended in an easy England victory which should have ensured sweet dreams for Eoin Morgan’s team.
They are 2-0 up in the five match series with two to play and streets ahead of their opponents. A rain delay of almost six hours cut this match to 21 overs a side but the shortening of the game did little to narrow the gap between them.
England put out a statement before play to once again defend playing in Sri Lanka in the monsoon season, blaming the packed schedules, and it was a wonder there was any cricket at all given the amount of rainfall. But after a long delay, and hours spent watching groundstaff wrestle with the enormous tarpaulin covers, England cruised to victory.
Morgan led the way again with 58 from 49 deliveries as his team produced another polished professional performance with bat and ball.
This is a multi-faceted England team able to adapt as the situation demands and led by a captain who is always thinking on his feet.
Morgan was always on the attack, willing to give Rashid a slip despite the shortened nature of the game, and rotated his seamers around so as not to give Sri Lankan batsmen a chance to settle. Ben Stokes prowled around in the outfield throwing himself at lost causes and when he bowled he cleverly shifted up and down the pace of his bouncers for four tidy overs.
England were excellent in the field, chasing down lost causes and saving runs on the boundary. It was in stark contrast to Sri Lanka who gifted runs with fumbles and were pressurised into errors by England batsmen running hard between the wickets.
Sri Lanka’s captain, Dinesh Chandimal, tried to anchor the innings but instead dragged it down taking 42 balls to score 34, putting pressure on batsmen at the other end to go on the attack before they had gauged conditions or the bowling, often costing them their wicket.
Niroshan Dickwella and Sadeera Samarawickrama scored 55 off the first five overs but then Sri Lanka fell apart. Dickwella misread Curran’s back of the hand slower ball and was caught at mid on. Rashid’s second ball was a beautifully flighted googly that Kusal Perera tried to drive and was bowled. Rashid varies his pace so well and with fielders out in the deep in one day cricket it makes him so hard to score off. The frustration grew and it brought Rashid a wicket with a full bunger that Sadeera pulled to square leg trying to heave it into Kandy Lake.
The dangerous Thisara Perera tried to smash his first ball from Rashid over long on but was caught by a diving Roy on the boundary. Only Dasun Shanaka collared the leg spinner, smearing boundaries in his final over before he was bowled off the last ball. Curran did Dhananjaya De Silva with an other back of the hand special and conceded just three off the final over, throwing down the stumps for a last ball run out off his own bowling to show he has the athleticism to go with the brains.
Sri Lanka took early wickets to have a sniff of a chance but Morgan’s fast hands enabled him to crack boundaries through the off side, easing his way to fifty off 45 balls. Stokes had oozed intent all day and was itching to get out there with the bat. He was off the mark with a glorious straight drive, played the shot of the match when he scooped a six over the keeper’s head off seamer Nuwan Pradeep and finished the game with a straight six. All too easy.
| R | B | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niroshan Dickwella WKT c Chris Woakes b Tom Curran | 36 | 20 | 180.00 |
| Sadeera Samarawickrama c Chris Woakes b Adil Rashid | 35 | 34 | 102.94 |
| Kusal Mendis b Adil Rashid | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| Dinesh Chandimal CPT c Adil Rashid b Tom Curran | 34 | 42 | 80.95 |
| Thisara Perera c Jason Roy b Adil Rashid | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva c Jason Roy b Tom Curran | 3 | 10 | 30.00 |
| Dasun Shanaka b Adil Rashid | 21 | 10 | 210.00 |
| Akila Dananjaya run out (Jonny Bairstow/Jos Buttler) | 7 | 4 | 175.00 |
| Lasith Malinga NOT OUT | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| Amila Aponso run out (Tom Curran/Jos Buttler) | 0 | 2 | 0.00 |
| Nuwan Pradeep | – | – | – |
| Extras (w 3, b 2, lb 7) | 12 | ||
| Total (9 wickets, 21 overs) | 150 |
| Fall of wickets |
|---|
| 1-57 (N Dickwella, 5.3 ov), 2-59 (K Mendis, 6.2 ov), 3-94 (S Samarawickrama, 12.2 ov), 4-94 (NTLC Perera, 12.3 ov), 5-110 (D de Silva, 16.1 ov), 6-138 (D Shanaka, 18.6 ov), 7-146 (A Dananjaya, 19.5 ov), 8-150 (D Chandimal, 20.4 ov), 9-150 (A Aponso, 20.6 ov) |
| O | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Woakes | 4 | 37 | 0 | 9.25 |
| Olly Stone | 3 | 24 | 0 | 8.00 |
| Tom Curran | 4 | 17 | 3 | 4.25 |
| Moeen Ali | 1 | 6 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Adil Rashid | 5 | 36 | 4 | 7.20 |
| Ben Stokes | 4 | 21 | 0 | 5.25 |
| R | B | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jason Roy lbw Akila Dananjaya | 40 | 25 | 160.00 |
| Jonny Bairstow c Thisara Perera b Amila Aponso | 4 | 2 | 200.00 |
| Joe Root b Amila Aponso | 8 | 10 | 80.00 |
| Eoin Morgan CPT NOT OUT | 58 | 49 | 118.36 |
| Ben Stokes NOT OUT | 35 | 24 | 145.83 |
| Jos Buttler WKT | – | – | – |
| Moeen Ali | – | – | – |
| Chris Woakes | – | – | – |
| Tom Curran | – | – | – |
| Adil Rashid | – | – | – |
| Olly Stone | – | – | – |
| Extras (w 5, lb 2) | 7 | ||
| Total (3 wickets, 18.3 overs) | 152 |
| Fall of wickets |
|---|
| 1-18 (J Bairstow, 1.2 ov), 2-34 (J Root, 3.5 ov), 3-79 (J Roy, 8.6 ov) |
| O | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lasith Malinga | 4 | 39 | 0 | 9.75 |
| Amila Aponso | 3.3 | 27 | 2 | 7.71 |
| Akila Dananjaya | 4 | 32 | 1 | 8.00 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 4 | 23 | 0 | 5.75 |
| Nuwan Pradeep | 2 | 21 | 0 | 10.50 |
| Thisara Perera | 1 | 8 | 0 | 8.00 |
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