By Srian Obeyesekere
Sri Lanka brushed off England by 19 runs yesterday in the first of three ODIs by a 271 for 6 off 50 overs to tolling England to 252 off 49.2 set up by a cornerstone Kusal Mendis’ measured unbeaten 93 off 117 balls upped by 11 boundaries and No 6 Janith Liyanage’s equally lending 53 off 44 balls in a fifth wicket 88 off 92 balls bonding as pacer Pramod Madushan 3 for 39 and the 2-wicket apiece Dunith Wellalage and Jeffrey Vandersay after the hosts made the most of taking first lease on an placid wicket at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium.
If the Mendis-Liyanage setting was the firing line to Sri Lanka’s victory in drying up England’s bowling attack that only spinner Adil Rashid impressed by a 3 for 44 haul, England lost their way from the high of a 2 for 129 off 27.1 overs and 3 for 144 after 32.4 when opener Ben Duckett 62 off 76 with 5 boundaries and a six and star in form batsman Joe Root 61 off 90 with 5 boundaries were on song despite Janie Overton’s late charge cameo 34 off 17 as the Lankan spin attack got on top with Dhananjaya de Silva and skipper Charith Asalanka’s wicket each contribution supplemented the four pronged spin attack driven by Wellalage and Vandersay, the latter accounting for Zak Crawley for 6 while Djananjaya claimed the prize wicket of Root trapping him leg before wicket.
Comparatively, Sri Lanka’s batting thrived on the 50 first wicket flurry off 10.3 overs by Pathum Nissanka 21 (2×4) and Kamil Mishara 27 (2×4, 1×6) that was the perfect setting despite both openers falling in quick succession 54 for 2 after 13.4 before Mendis took over towards the formidability of the 270 plus gauntlet to England by a workmanlike calculated seeing off of an innocuus England attack. Down the line Dhananjaya de Silva manning the No 4 though making 10 though helped in pushing the score to 97 in helping Mendis ads 43 for the third wicket. Asalanka made a run a ball 17, new cap Pavan Ratnayake 12 off 14 while it was Wellalage’s unbeaten cameo 25 off 12 with 3 boundaries and a six was the cherry Player of the Match all-round thronging to the victory.
England’s batting was exposed, the much boasted of bazball firepower inculcated by Head Coach Brandon McCallum a let down factor.
Sri Lanka 271 for 6 (Mendis 93*, Liyanage 46, Rashid 3-44) beat England 252 (Duckett 62, Root 61, Overton 34, Madushan 3-39) by 19 runs.
