England beat Sri Lanka in the second one-day international in Dambulla on Saturday. The Cricketer rounds up some of the pressing matters to come out of the game...
Jonny Bairstow might have reached 1,000 ODI runs for the calendar year during this innings in Dambulla - a phenomenal effort - but this was far from his most fluent knock.
Bairstow’s 26 came from 40 deliveries on a sticky wicket, as he struggled to find rhythm or momentum.
Since his white-ball form exploded in Dunedin in March, he has only scored at worse than a run a ball on one other occasion - against Australia at Old Trafford in June, when he could only manage 12 off 20 deliveries.
Here, his demise came in familiar circumstances - bowled off stump attempting a hard-handed drive. Bairstow has now been bowled in six of his last 13 international innings, while he has been dismissed between 25 and 38 in each of his past five visits to the crease in ODIs.
113*, 100*, 25*, 71. Not a bad sequence of scores, huh?
Joe Root’s unbeaten streak at the crease surpassed the previous England record for most runs between dismissals in ODIs, beating Graeme Hick’s 301 set in 1999.
By the time Root was finally out, caught at extra cover off the bowling of Dhananjaya de Silva, he had accumulated 309.
The world record? A mega 455, set by Pakistan’s Fakar Zaman earlier this year.
It should come as little surprise that the Yorkshireman took naturally to conditions in Dambulla. Over the course of his career, Root has always scored well in Sri Lanka.
His average in 50-over cricket in the country is all of 77.16, compared to his career equivalent of 52.08 and 48 in England. And it’s not from a meagre sample pool, either. Root has amassed 463 runs in nine knocks.
Olly Stone is congratulated
Sri Lanka’s batting was their major issue at the recent Asia Cup and here they showed no sign of easing.
Thirty-five for four represented their worst ever start to a one-day international innings against England on home soil but it is worringly familiar for those who regularly watch the team.
At the Asia Cup, Sri Lanka were 38 for four against Bangladesh and 88 for four against Afghanistan. From these positions, chances of success are always going to be slim.
And, unsurprisingly, that has turned out to be the case. Sri Lanka's two successful chases in ODIs in 2018 have come when their targets were below 200.
Lasith Malinga may be 35 years of age but the Sri Lankan seamer still has a masterful control of the white ball at the death.
Here, he got rid of the dangerous Jason Roy early before a flurry of slow yorkers flummoxed England’s middle order. He finished with 5-44 from his 10 overs, his first ODI five-for in four years. Malinga is the oldest man to return a five-for in one-day internationals since Wasim Akram in 2003, and the fourth oldest of all time.
He now has 10 victims in four matches since his return to the national team.
“I don’t know how much cricket I have left for the country but any chance I have to play for the national team, I am proud to play,” the speedster said.
“Now I have got a chance I want to prove I am still Lasith Malinga.”
So will we see him in next year’s World Cup?
“You never know. I am just looking at the next match.” Just as with his bowling, Malinga is keeping us guessing.
Lasith Malinga took five wickets
The subject of over rates is well trodden in the the world of cricket, with most paying spectators consistently bemused by the speed at which top sides get through their sets of six.
In Dambulla, there was proof of just how quickly overs can be bowled.
With dark clouds approaching and England needing to complete 20 to constitute a full game, Eoin Morgan turned to his spinners to get the job done. And they obliged.
Between them, Moeen Ali and Liam Dawson sprinted through 11 overs in 35 minutes. That’s an over rate of 20 per hour.
Who needs The Hundred with speed like that?
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