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.
