PALLEKELE, Saturday – Sri Lanka’s best batting effort of the series was washed down the Pallekele International Stadium drain by the ongoing monsoonal rains which came down in all its fury at 3.46 pm to ruin what could have been a challenging run chase in the fourth ODI played here yesterday.
What the rain did to Sri Lanka who were looking to make a come-back in the five-match ODI series was to hand England a win by 18 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis rain rule and with it a winning 3-0 lead with one match to play.
Had the game gone the distance Sri Lanka would have fancied their chances of pulling off a win after running up a total of 273-7 in 50 overs being asked to bat first.
England lost the wickets of Jason Roy (45) and Alex Hales (12) both to Akila Dananjaya in their run chase and were 132-2 at the end of the 27th over when rain interrupted play. The D/L rule par score at that stage was 114 and England being ahead by 18 runs was declared the winners.
Joe Root (32 n.o.) and Eoin Morgan (31 n.o.) put together a partnership of 56 and made certain that their side stayed ahead of the required par score as the dark clouds gathered.
Sri Lanka could have captured the wicket of Root when he was on 22 but for a careless technical mistake on their part in the 23rd over bowled by Dhananjaya de Silva.
There was the unusual incident of the square leg umpire signalling a no-ball when it was found that Sri Lanka had more than four fielders outside the 30-metre circle.
Root had popped the ball to short fine leg where Lasith Malinga held the catch. England would have been 112-3 at that stage when the par score was 115. But despite losing Root’s wicket and with the game continuing till the 27th over England would have still won by five runs under the D/L rain rule.
Although Sri Lanka got to a decent score of 273-7 it was not their top order that contributed but numbers 6, 7 and 8 who supplied a total of 142 runs. Following Sadeera Samarawickrama’s early departure for one poking his bat out at Chris Woakes, Niroshan Dickwella and skipper Dinesh Chandimal got the innings moving with a partnership of 70 for the second wicket before the all too familiar middle order collapse saw Sri Lanka slump from 89-1 to 102-4.
Dickwella made a fine half-century off 70 balls with five fours and Chandimal contributed 33 before the two spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid came and dismantled the batting taking three quick wickets including that of Kusal Mendis who once again was out cheaply for five.
The innings was given a shot in the arm by Dasun Shanaka who is being promoted in the order as a batsman. The hard hitting Shanaka did not disappoint on this occasion figuring in two half-century stands with Dhananjaya de Silva (17) and Thisara Perera (44) before being run out for an accomplished innings of 66 scored at a run a ball inclusive of five sixes and four fours.
Perera who hit a six and two fours in his 41-ball knock found another useful ally in Akila Dananjaya who played a plucky little innings of 22 not out off 26 balls and added 56 valuable runs for the seventh wicket that was largely responsible for Sri Lanka getting over the 250-run mark. It was undoubtedly Sri Lanka’s best batting of the series so far.
“If we had not made a mistake of having five fielders outside the circle and got Root’s wicket it would have been a close game. We could have built on the pressure from their onwards,” said Shanaka at the end of the match.
Chandimal praised his side for playing some outstanding cricket. “We can take the positives and are looking forward to the next game. 274 is a winning total, and unfortunately the rains came. You can’t say every time when you are losing a game you made a mistake, we are a young unit and will learn quickly.”
Morgan who was named Man of the Match said: “Today was a scrappy game, the wicket was a bit tacky and we let Sri Lanka creep up to a very competitive score. Credit to Sri Lanka, they fought back well, with their two spinners.”
Both sides made one change England leaving out Jonnie Bairstow after he twisted his ankle playing a game of football during a practice session on Thursday and Alex Hales replaced him for his first game of the series. Sri Lanka left out Nuwan Pradeep for Kasun Rajitha.
