There was an air of helplessness about the travelling Sri Lanka team heading into the first ODI against England in Durham on Tuesday (June 29) and the match went on much the expected lines with the visitors suffering yet another painful defeat on their trip.
Having lost the T20I series 3-0 in embarrassing fashion, the Lankans, who were already missing quite a few of their experienced heads due to a fall out with their cricket board, lost three more first-choice picks in controversial circumstances before the ODI series started.
The absence of Niroshan Dickwella, Danushka Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis, who were called back home on Monday after breaching the stringent bio-bubble employed in Chester-le-Street, meant that the struggling visitors were further weakened and had their work cut out ahead of their face-off with the defending ODI World Cup champions.
And, as it transpired, the Lankans went down just as heavily as they had on all three previous occasions of this trip, conceding the match by five wickets after being asked to bat first upon losing the toss.
The Sri Lankan batsmen once again seemed to not have much answers to the swing and seam generated by Chris Woakes and David Willey at the top as they found themselves reeling at 46/3 even before the end of the first powerplay.
Woakes and Willey made short work of the visitors’ top-order featuring Pathum Nissanka, debutant Charith Asalanka and Dasun Shanaka and threatened to make further inroads. But Sri Lanka captain Kusal Perera and impressive young all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga held their own and pulled off a gutsy fightback under difficult circumstances.
The duo didn’t cave in the pressure exerted on them by the opposition attack, instead batted quite positively and regularly got the ball touching the boundary ropes. They made exceptional half-centuries, with Perera scoring 73 off 81 balls and Hasaranga reaching 54 from 65 deliveries to take the game back to the opposition in a 99-run fourth-wicket stand.
However, just when it seemed that the Lankans may just get their score to competitive proportions, they suffered another collapse, losing Perera and Hasaranga in quick succession and eventually getting dismissed for a paltry 185 in 42.3 overs. Only one other Sri Lankan batsman outside Perera and Hasaranga – Chamika Karunaratne (19) – reached double digits.
In the run-chase, England started in characteristically explosive fashion, with opening batsman Jonny Bairstow (43) playing another quickfire knock right at the start. The hosts looked to dominate their way through against an inexperienced Sri Lanka attack, but they also took one risk too many in the process and found themselves 80/4 at one stage after losing Bairstow, his fellow opener Liam Livingstone (9), out-of-form skipper Eoin Morgan (6) and Sam Billings (3) quite cheaply.
But then, the hosts’ dependable anchor Joe Root came to their rescue and bailed his team out of trouble waters with some calm and composed batting. Root, batting along with all-rounder Moeen Ali (28), didn’t look to force the issue and just played his natural game through another brilliant half-century (79* off 87 balls), which helped the hosts avoid any further hiccups and ease towards the victory post.
Sri Lankan bowlers couldn’t recover the ground conceded earlier in the match by their team through some poor batting display outside Hasaranga and Perera. Much of the credit for which goes to Woakes (4/18), who was once again influential to England’s cause, and Willey (3/44) among other members of the England attack.
Brief scores
Sri Lanka 185 in 42.3 overs (Kusal Perera 73, Wanindu Hasaranga 54; Chris Woakes 4/18, David Willey 3/44) lost to England 189/5 in 34.5 overs (Joe Root 79*, Jonny Bairstow 43; Dushmantha Chameera 3/50, Chamika Karunaratne 1/39) by five wickets.
