Root Player of Match & Series in England’s 2-nil Champagne euphoria
Sri Lanka continued their horror run at the hands of England once again exposing the host team batting of not measuring up to desirable test match standard caving in for a pathetic 126 to spin surrendering in a 6-wicket loss inside of four days Monday at the Galle International Stadium as in the first test and conceding the series 2-nil in a poor 9-match defeatist record from the last 12 tests, 5 of which to the English. The Lankans once again sadly continued to invoke the ghost of inapt, rash stroke-play in a show of poor application steeped in disregard to conforming to the demanding disciplines of 5-day test cricket as Dinesh Chandimal’s men threw out of the window at short notice all the hard work that had earned them a 37-run first innings lead on a fantastic 10-wicket match haul of class finger spin bowling by Lasith Embuldeniya who had singlehandedly terrorized the England batsmen with some brilliant send downs. It largely highlighted the host team’s flawed impermanence in that respect.
England was quick to pounce on the brittle Lankan second innings show speeding reaching victory on an atoning half century by Dom Sibley who made 56, but not before Embuldeniya had once again cast a spell of 3 wickets.
The series was a champagne fulfillment for Engalnd captain Joe Root, Player of the Match and Series capped by becoming only second to Wally Hammond that an England batsman has scored more runs in a series of two or fewer matches with his 426 series aggregate to the latter’s 563 in two innings versus New Zealand in 1932-33. His 426 outshone the overall 980 runs by the rest of the England batsmen with his 44.4 percentage being the all-time fifth highest for any series or two or more tests topped by Hammond’s 52.4 %. Root also insulated himself in the second best captaincy record with 25 Test wins from 46 next to Michael Vaughan’s 26 from 51 tests.
CHIEF SCORES:
Sri Lanka 381
(Angelo Mathews 107, Niroshan Dickwella 92, Dilruwan Perera 67, James Anderson 6/40, Mark Wood 3/84 )
And 126 (35.5 Overs) RR: 3.51
(Lasith Embuldeniya 40, Ramesh Mendis 16, Kusal Janith Perera 14, Lahiru Thirimanne 13, Suranga Lakmal 11, Dom Bess 4/49, Jack Leach 4/59, Joe Root 2/0)
ENGLAND O/N, 339/9, All out 344 (116.1 Overs) RR: 2.96
(Joe Root 186, Lasith Embuldeniya 7/137, Ramesh Mendis 1/48, Dilruwan Perera 1/86)
And 164/4 (43.3 Overs) RR: 3.77
(Dom Sibley n.o. 56, Jos Buttler n.o. 46, Zak Crawley 13, Joe Root 11, Lasith Embuldeniya 3/73, Ramesh Mendis 1/48)