The result seemed inevitable throughout much of the game, however, the closeness of the finish was slightly unexpected. After England made a total that, to the majority of critics, was twenty runs below par, the classy Sri Lankan lynchpins guided a chase effortlessly but didn’t quite close it out until two balls to spare.
Kumar Sangakkara (84) led most of the chase for 266 and it seemed likely he would go on to register a 20th international ODI cricket century. His surprise exit though, sent a few ripples through the local batsmen; needing captain Angelo Matthews (51*) to steer them home, and in the process record a half-century of his own.
The win, Sri Lanka’s third of the cricket series, was finally delivered by Matthews and Lahiru Thirimanne who enjoyed a stand of 53 that reinforced the good work of Sangakkare and Mahela Jayawardene (44).
In all honesty Sri Lanaka should have been chasing more than 266. England overcame the early loss of Alex Hales (0) to find themselves in a strong position at 164/3 at the beginning of the batting power play. That proved the downfall for England who then failed to press on and put the game beyond doubt. 18 from the bat of Eoin Morgan was needed off Tillakaratne Dilshan’s final over just to make the target competitive. The return to form for Eoin Morgan was one of the bright spots for England. We anticipated / hoped for his return to form earlier in the week.
The other bright spot was undoubtedly the innings of diminutive right hander James Taylor (90). After a two year one day cricket hiatus and a nervy start, Taylor settled in for an excellent knock where he manipulated the field nicely and challenged the bowlers to find a length that fit his small stature. Amongst his and Morgan’s efforts Joe Root added a useful 36 but the others failed to find a suitable scoring method off the stifling Sri Lankan spin. Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes in particular continue to look like fish out of water against spin.
Looking more comfortable against the spin of Moeen Ali and Joe Root is the entire Sri Lankan order. Even the short of runs Kusal Perrera (31) was able to find some form. They’re also not struggling against seam either. Steven Finn continues to struggle and only Chris Jordan (2-35) was penetrating in these Colombo conditions.
Significant improvement is needed from England when cricket returns for game 5. While publicly they will claim they are still in the series, they’re not, and the remaining games will mainly be used to test top order combinations when Alastair Cook’s returns.
England are now at $13 to win the series at Bet365. A 6-1 series score is at $3.50.
Sri Lanka 267 for 4 (Sangakkara 86, Mathews 51*) beat England 265 (Taylor 90, Morgan 62, Herath 3-36) by six wickets
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