Buttler and Root secure victory for England

England 236 for 5 (Moeen 58, Buttler 55*, Root 48*) beat Sri Lanka 242 for 8 (Sangakkara 63, Thirimanne 62*, Woakes 3-41) by 5 wickets (D/L method)

England secured their first win in a One-Day International since September as they defeated Sri Lanka by five wickets.

A superb unbeaten partnership between Jos Buttler and Joe Root worth 84 runs guided the visitors towards their victory target of 236 as England made it 2-1 in the seven-game ODI series.

For a long time it looked as if the hosts would cruise to another convincing victory with England stumbling to 152/5 after a promising start to their run-chase.

But Buttler, who raced to his fifth ODI half-century in 35 balls and Root were on hand to guide England to a rare win in this format with promising signs for captain Alastair Cook who made a strong start with Moeen Ali.

Moeen continued his fine tour of the sub-continent scoring a quickfire 58 including five sixes as England made a fast start to their innings.

England were, however, disappointed to concede as many runs as they did with their hosts adding 62 runs in the final five overs of the innings to set a revised total of 236.

The visitors made a strong start to the third ODI, removing Kushal Perera for no score before the rain came, causing a three-hour delay in play. This caused the game to be reduced to 35 overs per side and it was England who made the better progress when play finally resumed.

Sri Lanka found themselves 31/3 when Steven Finn encouraged an edge from Tilikaratne Dilshan (23) through to Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes soon claimed his second wicket when Thilina Kandamby was caught at first slip for a duck.

The hosts were without Mahela Jayawardne owing to personal reasons (his daughters first birthday) but were unfased by his absence as Sangakkara and captain Angelo Matthews recovered the innings.

Their stand worth 87 runs through the middle overs unsettled England who, up until the start of this partnership, had a rare opportunity to tighten their hold on Sri Lanka.

Sangakkara reached the personal milestone of 13,000 ODI runs as he finished as Sri Lanka’s highest run-scorer and was later aided by an excellent cameo by Lahiru Thirimane who made an unbeaten 62 to deject the visitors.

There were promising signs for England’s bowlers, particularly Woakes and Jordan, but at times the bowling was erratic and the recall of Ben Stokes enabled Sri Lanka to 28 runs in just two overs.

Cook’s lack of faith in Stokes meant that Joe Root and Moeen were used unfavourably towards the end of the innings. Thirimane and Dhammika Prasad (21 from eight balls) capitalised on England’s lack of death bowling options, guiding Sri Lanka to a daunting total in this reduced ODI.

England’s chase started with unusual promise as Cook and Moeen made 84 for the opening partnership. Progress was quick thanks to Moeen, who hit the most sixes by an English batsman in One-Day cricket, but Cook (34) played an equally important role as he saw-off the early danger from the Sri Lankan spinners.

The England captain has been heavily criticised for not being aggressive enough in limited-overs cricket and his last ODI hundred was in June 2012. Although he was unable to break this record he will have been happy with his innings up until the point where he found an edge off Prasad.

A fast start allowed England the rare luxury of keeping the scoreboard ticking over in a more sedated manner, although Moeen continued to launch into the Sri Lankan bowlers with successive sixes.

The Worcestershire all-rounder made his second half-century in four innings after scoring his maiden century for England in the first ODI but his innings came to an end when a mix-up with Alex Hales caused him to be run out.

Hales was looking to impress on his return to the international set-up but failed to kick-on after making 27 with his innings coming to a rather tame end.

The Nottinghamshire batsman hit Matthews (2-34) for six after he had been dropped, but luckily for Sri Lanka he didn’t add too many more runs to the total before Matthews finally got his man.

Having made a healthy start, England’s middle-order was once again called in to question as the visitors lost three wickets for eight runs. Ravi Bopara’s run of form came to an end when he was caught behind off Rangana Herath (1-41) for six and Eoin Morgan’s lack of form continued as he added just one to the total.

This cluster of wickets left England in a spot of bother, with the odds now heavily in Sri Lanka’s favour but Root and Buttler were determined and the duo’s efforts ensured that England won with eight balls to spare.

The pair added 84 in just 64 deliveries, including one over which went for 22 runs, and a reprimand for Root who was called back to the crease for a front-foot no-ball by Prasad.

This proved to be a turning-point for the visitors who smashed anything that was even slightly off-line to the fence. Buttler in particular took charge with nine fours to help take him towards a fifty that went unnoticed amongst the euphoria of England’s success.

The next match takes place on Sunday in Colombo.