England brush Sri Lanka aside to take 2-0 series lead despite frustrating rain delays

Sealed with a six: Ben Stokes
REUTERS
Will Macpherson17 October 2018

This is proving a frustrating tour for England, and how the rainy season made them wait again to take the field for this victory.

After a series of false starts and just a couple of hours of proper rain, they finally took to the field for a 21-over thrash at 8.15pm local time – almost six hours after the scheduled start. It meant they had a late night – and missed their curfew – but shortly after half 11 they were celebrating a 2-0 series lead thanks to victory by seven wickets and with 15 of their 126 balls too spare.

To come through a slimmed game represents a positive on the road to the World Cup, where such a situation – which brings raises the possibility of lesser opportunity causing an upset – is eminently possible in the British summer.

That they did so after a poor start thanks to the performance of a fringe player, with Tom Curran – who had not played since March – taking a brilliant three for 17 from four overs, made it all the sweeter. The scoreline might suggest a stroll, but they came through some tricky moments to win.

Two up with two to play, they now cannot lose the series and raise the prospect – with five unused players in their squad and just seven games before they have to pick their World Cup 15 – of experimenting in Colombo on Tuesday if the series is won. Mark Wood, Sam Curran and Joe Denly, who arrived today, are probably all worth looking at, while Liam Plunkett is likely to come into the side for Saturday’s fourth match.

For Sri Lanka, there was little to lose in flying out of the blocks: they had two new balls, just two fielders back, and 10 wickets to throw at England. They were 31 for four on Saturday but, within three overs here were 38 without loss, having hit half of the 18 balls for four. Niroshan Dickwella hit seven of them, plenty on the up through cover off Chris Woakes, while Sadeera Samarawickrama got after Olly Stone, whose opening over went for 17. On came Curran, whose fourth over went for just seven, to stem the flow. Adil Rashid missed a tough chance off Dickwella, too.

That would be Dickwella’s last chance off Curran, but by the time he skied to mid-off he had 36 off 20 balls. Curran’s second over went for just two, checking Sri Lanka’s progress further, then Adil Rashid went one better. His first over cost two, and saw Kusal Mendis fall to a beautiful googly that jagged back through his unlatched gate.

Calm had been restored for England and it remained until some brief humpty from Dasun Shanaka late on. Curran passed the baton to Ben Stokes, who proved equally unhittable with his changes of length and pace, while Rashid attacked. He struck twice in two balls in two very different fashions. Samarawickrama could only divert a rank full toss to square leg, then Thisara Perera skied down the ground. Jason Roy ran 30m from long-on to take a superb catch.

Roy was the catcher when Dhananjya de Silva tried to get after Curran then Rashid, entrusted with a fifth over (only one bowler was allowed that privilege), eventually won his entertaining battle with Shanaka, who was bowled for 21 off 10 balls.

Three wickets fell in the final eight balls – two to run outs – as 55 without loss from five overs became 150 for nine from 21. Curran’s last over, the 21st, was brilliant, fooling Dinesh Chandimal into ramping to fine leg, then running out Amila Aponso with the final ball. Curran’s four overs brought 11 dots, just 17 runs and one boundary – and that from Rashid’s missed chance early on.

So England found themselves chasing a modest T20 total with an extra over to do it, so – having opted to stick with Joe Root ahead of Alex Hales – opted to stick with Jos Buttler down the order. Never mind, Roy cleared his front leg and swatted Malinga’s second legal delivery of the innings to cow for six, then Jonny Bairstow eased his first ball through midwicket for four.

Seventeen from the first over could be filed under “tidy starts”, but it brought a change of tack from Sri Lanka and Aponso, a tidy left-arm orthodox spinner they had not faced before, caused problems for the Yorkshiremen. Bairstow smashed his next ball to mid-off, then Root was bowled.

Not that there was any cause for alarm. Roy struck the ball beautifully until a speculative lbw appeal did for him. Eoin Morgan, who made his second straight half-century, calmly picked off gaps, while Stokes came out swinging and played one particularly memorable ramp for six. There was no cause for alarm, and no need for Buttler as Stokes launched six more down the ground to finish the job.

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