Despite rain to prevent England from completing a clean sweep in the third and final ODI, Tom Curran claimed four wickets in that match for England.
Following in his brother Sam’s footsteps, Tom Curran helped England draw the third and final one-day international against Sri Lanka because of rain, and England lost the series, as a result. England went on to win the T20 series 3-0 and, consequently, England’s ODI campaign was expected to end with a 3-0 win, in which Curran would take 4-35 in his 10 overs. This was a follow-up to Sam Edwards’ 5-48 in an eight-wicket win over Yorkshire at the Oval on Thursday, which put England up 2-0 in the series. Due to a large amount of rain that followed after Sri Lanka’s innings, the match was suspended before England’s champions over 50 overs could begin their reply.
England’s series win means that they’ll now represent the Super League in the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India.
Sri Lanka, which stayed in 11th place in the standings, will almost certainly have to go through a qualifying event separate from the main event in order to qualify for the showpiece tournament.
merciless
We’re happy that even though we went up 2-0 in the series, they were as tenacious and well-disciplined as ever.
For England, Tom Curran recorded his first five-wicket haul as a right-arm pacer. Previously, he had bowled in T20s and ODI matches without getting a wicket.
After getting wickets in his last three games, Tom Curran said ahead of the first ODI of a three-match series against Pakistan, which is starting Thursday in Cardiff, “It’s nice to get wickets today, but I have not really felt the need for wickets.”
“Sometimes you don’t get a wicket, and other times you can bowl a decent amount of overs.”
It was hard to offer much resistance in the end, as Sri Lanka was defeated with nearly nine overs left in their innings, with only Dasun Shanaka’s 48 not out on the board.
It appeared as though Sri Lanka had never recovered from the departure of three senior players – opening batsman Danushka Gunathilaka, and the two wicketkeepers, Niroshan Dickwella and Kusal Mendis – due to the team receiving a 14-day suspension for failing to adhere to ICC regulations before the T20 series against England.
Kusal Perera, the Sri Lanka captain, said, “Our batsmen have not been in the game.” The first step is trusting their own abilities and going back to the basics.
As has happened frequently in the past, the fate of Sri Lanka was sealed for them on Sunday, as they go all out for 63 in the 15th over, after Chris Woakes and David Willey scored early.
Willey, overlooked for the victorious England team that will compete in the 2019 World Cup due to Jofra Archer’s absence, was selected as player of the series after picking up nine wickets for an average of just 16 runs.
Generally, I try to swing the new ball, but in the last game I bowled a bit shorter and picked up a few wickets that way.
After Sri Lanka’s batsmen fell to the short ball to all of England’s quick bowlers in both the test match at the Oval and the ODI in Bristol, both Dhananjay de Silva (who made an excellent 91 at the Oval) and Wanindu Hasaranga (who was bowled in the deep by Woakes and Tom Curran) were victims of that strategy.
