Rain continues to be England's ally as they head towards a clean sweep against Sri Lanka

by Saksham Mishra Saturday 20 October 2018

Rain continues to be England's ally

©Reuters

Morgan and Root see England to 3-0 lead

©Reuters

Sri Lanka's Dasun Shanaka 66 (inc 5x6s)

©Reuters

Moeen Ali celebrates with his teammates

©Reuters

And just like this, assisted by some (read a lot of) rain, England have sealed the ODI series 3-0 with one match still to go.

SL - 273-7 (50.0 Overs)

ENG - 132-2 (27.0 Overs)

Result - England won by 18 runs (DLS Method) (D/L)

Scorecard

MATCH ABANDONED ???

Torrential rain has brought an early finish in Pallekele, England winning by 18 runs on DLS to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series. #SLvENG 4th ODI scorecard ??https://t.co/qcD4mhrev8 pic.twitter.com/Soq8bUfPog
— ICC (@ICC) October 20, 2018

Even in this victory, England would know that this was their scrappiest performance of the tour. Initially, they allowed the Sri Lankan batsmen to get away and post an above par total on a difficult batting surface. Then, they lost a couple of wickets and nearly a third one and could have found themselves in trouble. But fate had other plans.

Powered by a half century from opener Niroshan Dickwella and a well-constructed partnership between Shanaka (66) and Thisara Perera (44), Sri Lanka were successful in posting 273 for 7 despite a good bowling performance from Olly Stone and Tom Curran at the death.

Although Jason Roy got off the blocks quickly, both him and Alex Hales fell to the mystery of Akila Dananjaya. Root and Morgan then saw England as long as it was required.

If only captain Dinesh Chandimal did not have just four fielders inside the 30-yard circle, Joe Root was also goner. This would then have created a very interesting scenario in the match such that the game could have swayed any which way. But that was not to happen as when rain started pouring down heavily, England were 18 runs ahead of the DLS par score and that is how it stayed.

Sri Lanka - Niroshan Dickwella(wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kusal Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal(c), Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka, Thisara Perera, Akila Dananjaya, Lasith Malinga, Amila Aponso, Kasun Rajitha

England - Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan(c), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler(wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Tom Curran, Olly Stone