English feast at Southampton as Sri Lanka suffer series whitewash
As usual Dushmantha Chameera starred with the ball for Sri Lanka, while Dawid Malan took the batting honours
Sri Lankan batsmen crumbled like ninepins as England coasted to a comfortable 89-run win to clean sweep the three-match T20 series at Southampton yesterday. Chasing a formidable target of 181 runs to win, Sri Lanka showed no resilience as they succumbed after a poor display of batting, that was on par an amateur or upcoming side.
After being asked to bat first by Sri Lanka captain Kusal Perera, England saw a sensational batting performance from openers Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan who scored 105 runs for the first wicket.
While Bairstow smashed 51 runs in 43 balls, Malan hammered 76 runs in 48 balls to help England’s total to 180/6.
In reply, Sri Lanka kept losing wickets at regular intervals as David Willey picked up three wickets while left-arm seamer Sam Curran registered figures of 14/2 in his four overs.
In the end, the target proved too much for Sri Lanka to chase down and they could were bundled out for 91 in 18.5 overs.
The series defeat will put pressure on the selectors and the team think-tank to revise their youth-centred selection policy that saw several seniors being shown the door from limited over cricket. With the ODI series coming up, Sri Lankans have unjustifiably tarnished their reputation in world cricket with back-to-back defeats against a top English side, without the least fight.
Winning the toss for a third consecutive time, Sri Lanka skipper put the Englishmen into bat only to receive a massive target with a run-rate of nine per over. Having opted to bat first on the two previous occasions, the Sri Lankans managed to rake up 129-7 and 111-7 only to receive thrashings by 8 wickets and 5 wickets respectively. The third outing had no exception as England posted the highest total of the series while Sri Lanka recorded their lowest.
The two teams will play three ODIs following this, the first of which will be played at Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street on June 29.
| Scoreboard | |
| England Jonny Bairstow b Udana 51 Dawid Malan c Shanaka b Chameera 76 Liam Livingstone c Shanaka b Fernando 14 Sam Billings c Shanaka b Chameera 2 Eoin Morgan c Gunathilaka b Chameera 1 Moeen Ali c Hasaranga b Chameera 7 Sam Curran not out 9 Chris Jordan not out 8 Extras (lb3, w9) 12 Total (6 wickets; 20 overs) 180 Did not bat: Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid Fall of wickets: 1-105 (Bairstow, 11.4), 2-143 (Livingstone, 15.1), 3-148 (Billings, 16.2), 4-151 (Morgan, 16.6), 5-162 (Malan, 18.3), 6-162 (Ali, 18.5) Bowling: Dushmantha Chameera 4-0-17-4, Binura Fernando 4-0-26-1, Isuru Udana 4-0-55-1, Lakshan Sandakan 4-0-28-0, Wanindu Hasaranga 3-0-42-0, Dasun Shanaka 1-0-9-0 Sri Lanka Danushka Gunathilaka c Malan b Willey 4 Kusal Perera c Livingstone b Woakes 3 Oshada Fernando c Willey b Curran 19 Kusal Mendis c Bairstow b Willey 6 Niroshan Dickwella c Jordan b Curran 11 Dasun Shanaka run out 7 Wanindu Hasaranga c Malan b Jordan 1 Isuru Udana c Ali b Willey 0 Binura Fernando b Livingston 20 Lakshan Sandakan not out 3 Dushmantha Chameera lbw b Ali 1 Extras (b1, lb7, nb1, w7) 16 Total (all out; 18.5 overs) 91 Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Gunathilaka, 0.2), 2-23 (Perera, 3.6), 3-29 (Mendis, 4.4), 4-46 (O. Fernando, 8.1), 5-61 (Shanaka, 11.2), 6-64 (Dickwella, 12.4), 7-64 (Hasaranga, 13.4), 8-64 (Udana, 14.2), 9-88 (B. Fernando, 17.4), 10-91 (Chameera, 18.5) Bowling: David Willey 4-0-27-3, Chris Woakes 4-0-9-1, Chris Jordan 4-1-13-1, Sam Curran 4-0-14-2, Adil Rashid 1-0-9-0, Liam Livingstone 1-0-8-1, Moeen Ali 0.5-0-3-1 |