Selector blunders cost Lankans another game
Off-spinner Joe Denly made a comeback to the England side after eight years only to capture impressive four Lankan scalps - Pic by Harshana Thushara
Fickle selection policy was once again in full exhibition as Sri Lanka succumbed to yet another heavy defeat in the one-off T20 international against England here at the R. Premadasa Stadium last night. Chasing 188 to win, Sri Lanka could muster 157 runs all out, suffer a 30-run defeat as England wrapped up the match in style.
The hosts, who had condemned England to their heaviest defeat on Tuesday in the fifth and final ODI match, may have expected to perform a similar feat to get their hands on the trophy after losing the ODI series 3-1. Instead, they produced another below par performance to concede yet another defeat.
After letting England score a mammoth total–largely thanks to poor effort in the field which included three dropped catches and a run-out–another familiar batting collapse saw the Englishmen run away with a comfortable victory.
On a good batting surface, 188 wasn’t an impossible target. But Sri Lanka made a huge blunder by chopping and changing its batting order. Sadeera Samarawickrema who together with Niroshan Dickwella laid a solid foundation for Sri Lanka’s score of 366 in the last ODI, did not find a place in the side. His replacement, Kusal Mendis only made a mockery of his selection at the top of the order.
It’s a puzzle why the team management persists with Mendis at the top of the order, despite the 23-year-old increasingly proving to be a misfit as an opener. Mendis made just a run before English spinner Joe Denly bowled him while attempting to sweep across the line—an error he had committed too often.
Dickwella—the top scorer in the last ODI—was dismissed in similar fashion to Mendis when he attempted to play Denly across the line as Sri Lanka lost their second wicket in the third over for 16 runs. Dinesh Chandimal (26), debutant Kamindu Mendis (24) and Dananjaya de Silva (17) got the starts but failed to convert them to big scores as English seam and spin attack bowled at a disciplined line and length.
Sri Lanka skipper Thisara Perera played a lone hand with a quick-fire knock of 57 off 31 balls with six sixes but could not stop England from running away with a win. Off-spinner Joe Denly (4/19) and leg-spinner Adil Rashid (3/11) were particularly impressive sharing seven wickets between them giving away just 40 runs off their eight overs.
Left-arm spinner Amila Aponsu had derailed England’s early onslaught with two quick wickets in the forth over after the visitors got off to flying start, having been put to bat first. Jos Buttler hit straight into the hands of Dinesh Chandimal at cover, soon after he clobbered the previous ball over mid-off to the ropes as England lost their first wicket on 41.
Two balls later, Aponso struck again, trapping new man Alex Hales leg-before, when the tall right-hander played across the line. Instead of challenging the decision, Hales decided to take the long walk back to the dressing room, but the hawk-eye suggested that the ball missed the leg-stump by a margin.
A terrible mix-up between skipper Eoin Morgan and Jason Roy saw the former being run-out at the non-striker’s end as England slumped to 60 for 3 from a commanding 41 for none at the start of the fourth over. Morgan reverse swept Lakshan Sandakan in the air towards the third man but there was hesitation from the batsmen. They paid the price for this with Sandakan hitting the stumps from yards.
Jason Roy treated the Sri Lankan bowlers brutally but finally departed for a brisk 69 after surviving four times in-between. Having got off to a flyer hitting Lasith Malinga over long-on boundary in the second ball he faced, he was cruising smoothly when Sri Lanka missed running the man out on 21. After pushing the ball to mid-off, Roy ran towards the none-strikers end but was sent back. Dasun Shanaka, instead of passing the ball into the wicket-keeper, threw it straight into the back of Roy. Sri Lanka appealed on grounds of obstructing the field but the replays clearly showed otherwise.
Ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis could have collected his maiden wicket had Kusal Mendis, running from cover boundary, held onto what would have been a brilliant catch soon after Jason Roy had reached his fourth half-century with a mighty six over leg-side boundary.
Moeen Ali hit a cameo 27 off 11 balls including two back-to-back sixes off Thisara Perera’s only over before part-timer Dananjaya de Silva bowled him to end a threatening fifth wicket stand. Lasith Malinga removed both Joe Denly (20) and Ben Stoke (26) in successive balls in the penultimate over to finish with figures of 2 for 30.
Malinga’s strike restricted England under 200-runs which looked within their reach for the most part of the innings. Isuru Udana yorked Adil Rashid in the penultimate ball as England amassed 187 for 8 in the 20 over. Out of the English total 108 runs came off from sixes (10×6) and boundaries (17×4), an exhibition of brutal batting against a spin-heavy Sri Lankan attack. Sri Lanka had three specialist spinners in the playing XI (Amila Aponso, Lakshan Sandakan and Kamindu Mendis) and a part-timer in Dananjaya de Silva.
| Scoreboard | |
| England Jason Roy c Dickwella b Sandakan 69 (Spins away wide of stump, reaches to cut, edges to wicketkeeper) Jos Buttler c Chandimal b Aponso 13 (Tosses up, spins, drives on the backfoot, straight to cover) Alex Hales lbw b Aponso 4 (Grips and spins, batsman sweeps, misses and hits pad) Eoin Morgan run out 11 (Reverse sweeps in the air, doesn’t quite carry to short third man, hesitates during the run) Ben Stokes b Malinga 26 (Low full toss, tries to defend and misses) Moeen Ali b D de Silva 27 (Ball slides down the bat, batsman pulls and misses) Joe Denly c K. Mendis b Malinga 20 (Slow delivery, tries to hit straight but mistimes, simple catch at long on) Adil Rashid b Udana 5 (Full and straight delivery, finds thick inside edge to stumps) Liam Plunkett not out 7 Chris Jordan not out 2 Extras (lb1, w2) 3 Total (20 overs; 8 wickets) 187 Did not bat: Tom Curran Fall of wickets: 1-41 (Buttler, 3.2), 2-45 (Hales, 3.5), 3-60 (Morgan, 6.2), 4-107 (Roy, 10-6), 5-145 (Ali, 14.2), 6-173 (Denly, 18.2), 7-173 (Stokes, 18.3), 8-185 (Rashid, 19.5) Bowling: Lasith Malinga 4-0-30-2, Amila Aponso 3-0-29-2, Isuru Udana 3-0-24-1, Lakshan Sandakan 4-0-39-1, Kamindu Mendis 3-0-27-0, Thisara Perera 1-0-15-0, Dhananjaya de Silva 2-0-22-1 Sri Lanka Niroshan Divkwella b Denly 3 (Full flighted delivery, plays across the line, and misses) Kusal Mendis b Denly 1 (Straight delivery, spins slightly, slogs across and misses completely) Dinesh Chandimal c Hales b Rashid 26 (Decent delivery, reverse sweeps, brilliantly caught at deep backward point) Dhananjaya de Silva lbw b Rashid 17 (Full leg-sided delivery, raps the pads, originally turned down, England reviews) Kamindu Mendis c Hales b Rashid 24 (Tosses up, slog sweeps, finds a top edge, caught at deep midwicket) Thisara Perera c Roy b Denly 57 (Low full toss, smashes out to deep midwicket, easy catch) Dasun Shanaka b Plunkett 10 (Full, straight, slower delivery, attempts a wild slog, misses and hits off stump) Isuru Udana b Stokes b Jordan 2 (Tries to get under the ball, but hits it straight to the mid-off fielder) Amila Aponso b Jordan 0 (Yorker, right on the blockhole, straight hit to middle stump) Lasith Malinga b Denly 5 (Full and straight, plays across and misses completely, sealing England’s win) Lakshan Sandakan not out 1 Extras (b5, lb5, w1) 11 Total (20 overs; all out) 157 Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Kusal Mendis, 0.6), 2-16 (Dickwella, 2.5), 3-49 (Chandimal, 6.5), 4-77 (Kamindu Mendis, 10.1), 5-77 (de Silva, 10.3), 6-110 (Shanaka, 14.5), 7-119 (Udana, 15.4), 8-119 (Aponso, 15.6), 9-156 (Perera, 19.4), 10-157 (Malinga, 19.6) Bowling: Joe Denly 4-0-19-4, Tom Curran4-0-40-0 , Chris Jordon 4-0-29-2, Adil Rashid 4-0-11-3, Liam Plunkett 2-0-24-1, Moeen Ali 2-0-24-0 |