By Leonard Ratnayake in Southampton, England
Picture courtesy – Sesatha UK
England beat Sri Lanka by 89 runs to cleen sweep the T20 international series winning the third match at Ageas Rose Bowle in Southamton. Sri Lanka were all out for 91 runs in 18.5 overs chasing a challenging total 180 for six by the Englishmen.
Sri Lanka brought in Oshada Fernando in place of injured Avishka Fernando who will be side-lined for the rest of the tour, while Lakshan Sandakan have replaced Akila Dananjaya, who is still struggling to find form after changing his bowling action.
Danushka Gunathilaka showed his intentions with a boundary in the first ball, but he edged the next ball to Dawid Malan at first slip. Recalled Oshada Fernando joined his skipper Kusal Janith Perera and to show that he wanted to occupy the crease for long. His dot balls escalated the skipper unbearable pressure as he continued his bad selection of shots to get out caught again with a leading edge
His deputy Kusal Mendis edged the next ball to the wicket-keeper Johnny Bairstow after a straight six over the bowler David Willey. Sri Lanka were reeling at 29 for three when Niroshan Dickwella came to the crease started his rash shot trying to scoop his first bowl off Willey.
Sri Lanka had 24 dot balls in first six overs, which meant four overs without scoring as Fernando was joined by Dickwella in a swing and a miss display of batting. Eventually, Fernando was out in the 9th over for 19 in 27 balls.
At end of 15 over, there were 62 dot balls with the score at 71 for eight to mean that Sri Lankans had scored at a rate of over 16 per over when considered the scoring balls.
None of the Sri Lankan batsmen showed resistance to stay at the crease as they played sloppy cricket as commentator Michael Atherton posed a question to his counterpart Kumar Sangakkara as if this was the best team Sri Lanka had sent to England. “This is in fact the best squad giving the availability ” Sangakkara diplomatically avoided any more escalations on the topic.
Earlier in the day, winning the toss for the third time, Sri Lankan captain finally decided to bowl first, but his opening bowlers failed to show aggression in bowling and discipline in line and length as they were hit to every corner of the ground by English batters. They reached the 100 mark without any loss in 11.1 overs.
Sri Lankan continued their pathetic display of being less committed in the field dropping and misjudging a few catches that could have given the bowlers much wanted motivation. Only Dasun Shanaka, Danushka Gunatillake and Wanindu Hasaranga continued to show exception.
Isuru Udana was the most expensive of the bowlers exceeding 55 runs in four overs although he got the breakthrough to take first English wicket bowling out Johnny Bairstow in the 12th over for 51 runs, when the scoreboard read 105.
Usual tight bowling Hasaranga gave away 42 runs in 3 over, while Dushmantha Chameera was the outstanding from the lot taking four wickets to affect a mini-collapse to the innings, which otherwise would have seen a score over 200.
Binura Fernando took the wicket of Liam Livingstone for 14. However earlier in the day, Fernando playing only a handful of international matches defied sportsmanship as he pushed a Dawid Malan on his way to avoid a run out. He was noted pointing a finger at the dressing room in his comeback match to the squad.
Opener Malan top scored with 76 runs which saw nine boundaries including four sixes. None of the other English batsmen got double figure as Sri Lanka contributed with 12 extras to the English total.
Sri Lanka will continue their tour in England with three-match One Day International series starting the first match on Tuesday June 29 at River-side Ground in Durham.
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