Sri Lanka’s middle-order battalion steered them to a 6-wicket win over England during the last over of the 4th ODI played at R. Premadasa Stadium on Sunday to enjoy a 3-1 lead in the series.
Sri Lanka successfully chased down a target of 266 thanks to enterprising knocks from Kumar Sangakkara (86), Mahela Jayawardene (44) in the middle and Angelo Mathews (51*) in the end after England posted a par score of 265 with James Taylor making his maiden half-ton (90) and Eoin Morgan coming back to form with a stylish innings of 62. Lankan spinners did the trick picking up 9 wickets to reduce England well below 300 which was on the cards at one point.
Earlier in the day, with the scorching sun bathing down heavily, England opted to bat first with stand-in captain Eoin Morgan winning the toss. James Taylor slotted in for suspended Alastair Cook while Mahela Jayawardene returned to the Lankan XI in place of Thilina Kandamby.
Dhammika Prasad extracted the best out of the fresh surface as he took the outside edge of Alex Hales in the 2nd over for a duck when Mahela snapped a straight forward catch at first slip. Sri Lanka’s well-known ploy of using TM Dilshan early on with the new ball worked once again when the dangerous Moeen Ali threw away his wicket trying a big heave coming down the wicket which he missed by a long distance.
The young batting pair of James Taylor and Joe Root started off their 3rd wicket stand at 29/2 and they built it perfectly to lay the foundation for England to a massive score adding 93 runs. Rangana Herath brought into the attack for his 2nd spell in the 26th over and he straightaway cleaned up Root for 36.
Short-statured Taylor grabbed his chance with both hands to claim his spot in the England ODI team with a confident 90 which had delightful sweeps and flicks against the Lankan spinners. He survived a LBW with the help of DRS at 35 yet he fell short of a well-deserved ton just after they took the batting powerplay to Ajantha Mendis as the right-hander miscued a lofted drive.
TM Dilshan once again proved his ability to take wickets at crucial times as he took the prized scalp of Ravi Bopara through a delivery which kept tad low in the 36th over to dent the English momentum as the visitors were restricted to 173/5 from 170/3. England managed only 23 runs in the batting powerplay.
Eoin Morgan held the innings perfectly from one end to keep the score board moving yet he lost partners regularly. Herath ended Buttler’s uncharacteristic knock of 15 when he holed out Mahela at deep long-on. Both Rangana and Ajantha put brakes on the England charge taking wickets yet Dilshan’s final over of the innings gave away 18 runs as skipper Morgan made a 47-ball 62 which lifted the final score to 265. Sri Lanka bowled 36 overs using their spinners including the final 21 overs. The Lankan spin-trio Herath, Mendis and Dilshan strangled the English middle and late order with slow and sensible bowling and they equally shared 9 wickets amongst them.
Chasing 266 runs to win, Sri Lanka commenced their journey with Dilshan timing two on-drives to the fence elegantly to race to 16 yet he top-edged a pull off Woakes and Morgan safely took the catch. Kusal Janith started off impressively hammering few of his trademark cut shots over the inner circle but his solid start was fully stopped by Moeen Ali as the left-hander fell for 31 giving a simple catch to Jordan at first slip.
Seasoned batting stalwarts, Sangakkara and Jayawardene once again got together to put up another affiliation filled with elegant stroke play to mirror the same fate at the previous ODI at this venue. England bowling lacked the punch to trouble the two masters of partnerships. While Mahela swept the part-time English spinners with ease, Sanga used his quick foot and ability to spot free spaces in the field to manufacture effortless boundaries though they rotated the strike effectively. Kumar reached his 90th ODI half-ton in the 28th over lofting above the extra cover fielder for four. Mahela’s calculated innings of 44 ended when he dragged a Chris Jordan delivery to disturb the timber as another Sanga-Mahela stand worth 96 finished.
Skipper Angelo and Sangakkara took the precautionary route of batting it safe during the batting powerplay scoring the same runs England scored (23), yet no wickets were lost.
During Sanga’s top-notch knock he surpassed the magical figure of 1,000 runs in a calendar year but unfortunately was dismissed for 86 when he over-cooked a perfect lofted cut shot straight to deep extra cover off Jordan ending a subdued stand of 49.
After Sangakkara’s dismissal, the run-rate climbed above 6.00 per over. Angelo and Thirimanne kept their composure and steadied the ship though the Englishmen bowled well to stay in the game but a dropped chance of Mathews by Alex Hales in the 46th over deprived them of coming back to the match. Captain Marvel yet again stood up to his reputation being one of the most successful finishers of the modern game as he brought up his half-century scoring the winning runs though the hosts dragged it till the end to keep the hearts pounding hard of a superb crowd present.
Sri Lanka leads the series 3-1 and both teams will now travel to the hill-capital for the 5th and 6th matches.
Man of the Match – Kumar Sangakkara
Scorecard :
