Sri Lanka – England 1st ODI: Spinners to the fore as Sri Lanka go one up

By M. Shamil Amit / Pix by: Kushan Pathiraja

Kusal Mendis’s unbeaten knock of 93 that laid the foundation for Sri Lanka to post a score of 271 for 6 was taken over by Sri Lanka spinners who together combined to restrict England for a score of 252 in their run chase of 272 to record a win by 19 runs win in the first of the three match ODI series played at the R. Premadasa Stadium.
England underwent an early setback losing their first wicket in the third over on 12 with the wicket of Zak Crawley from whom much was expected.
But Ben Duckett and Joe Root stood the ground as the pair denied success for Sri Lanka for a considerable period whilst posting the sides’ 50 runs and sharing a 50 runs stand.
They continued to torment the Sri Lanka bowlers and succeeded to put up the 100 runs on the board which followed with them racing to their half tons with Root being the first in 72 balls but Duckett was quicker reaching it in 67 balls.
They managed to put on their 100 runs stand for the second wicket but the separation of the pair 17 runs later with spinner Jeffrey Vandersay making the breakthrough with the wicket of Duckett who hit 62 with five boundaries and a six saw them falling back.
Root followed being dismissed by spinner Dhananjaya de Silva having made 61 with five boundaries.
From there on the effort put in by Duckett and Root seemed to be in vain as England lost wickets at regular intervals.
Despite Rehan Ahmed and Jamie Overton put in some resistance and shared a brief stand of 38 runs for the seventh wicket the task was not going to be easy and again despite Overton getting some support from last man Adil Rashid it was not going to deny Sri Lanka from winning the game to go one up in the three match series.
Kusal Mendis cracked an unbeaten 93 in 117 balls which had 11 boundaries. To add salt to the wound Dunith Wellalage was on fire at the last stages of the innings as he made an unbeaten 25 in just 12 balls that included three boundaries and a six.
Sri Lanka’s last over produced 23 runs and Wellalage was severe punishing Jamie Overton as he made 20 of those runs and also shared an unbroken 32 runs for the seventh with Mendis.
Earlier Sri Lanka openers Pathum Nissanka and Kamil Mishara after skipper Charith Asalanka winning the toss and electing to take first lease of the wicket gave the side a sound start putting 50 runs in 61 balls before being separated with the dismissal of Nissanka who made 21.
Mishara did not last long as he followed three runs later having made 27. This followed with Kusal Mendis sharing two brief partnerships of 43 runs for the third wicket with Dhananjaya de Silva and 27 runs for the fourth wicket with skipper Asalanka and in the process Mendis succeeded to reach his half ton coming off 61 balls which had eight boundaries.
Mendis joined by Janith Liyanage put in stiff resistance and the pair began accumulating runs with ease whilst posting Sri Lanka’s 150 runs on the board and then the 50 runs stand for the fifth wicket.
The pair posted Sri Lanka’s 200 runs on the board coming in the 42nd over or precisely 252 balls. But Liyanage was unfortunate to miss out on his half ton as he became spinner Rashid’s third victim having made 46 and sharing a valuable 88 runs for the fifth wicket with Mendis who shared another brief stand of 27 runs for the sixth wicket with Pavan Ratnayake.