Centurion Kumar Sangakkara heralded Sri Lanka’s decision to promote aspiring all-rounder Nuwan Kulasekara to the middle order, after Sri Lanka romped to a convincing seven-wicket triumph over England in Thursday’s Champions Trophy Group A match at The Oval in London.
Kulasekara, expected to bat in eighth or nine position, instead arrived at the fall of the third wicket – and promptly reached an unbeaten 58 off just 38 balls. Sangakkara, meanwhile, moved to an authoritative 134 not out.
The left-handed Sangakkara and right-handed Kulasekara’s unbroken 110-run alliance inside a dozen overs saw the Sri Lankans surpass a testing 294-run target with all of 17 deliveries to spare.
The pair shared 17 boundaries and three sixes, ultimately capitalising on the foundation laid by opener Tillakaratne Dilshan’s 44 and former captain Mahela Jayawardene’s 42.
“It is strange isn’t it? If that didn’t work, the team would have been torn to shreds,” said Man of the Match Sangakkara.
“Captain Angelo Mathews would have taken some criticism saying ‘what was he doing or what were the coaches thinking’.
“Decisions like that can go both ways but I thought it was really strong of Angelo and the coaches to take that decision.
“It was great to see how it worked. It would have been easy for Nuwan to come in and try to hit every ball but he batted sensibly through the powerplay and accelerated after.”
The result kept Sri Lanka and England in the hunt for a semi-final berth in the wake of a win and a defeat each. Mathews and company’s next fixture will be against Australia at the same venue on Monday.
