Sri Lanka end series with top-drawer performance against England

by Saksham Mishra Tuesday 23 October 2018

Sri Lanka's Dushmantha Chameera (C) celebrates with his teammates after taking the wicket of England's Joe Root

©Reuters

A dominating 219-run victory over England in the last ODI must have left the Sri Lankan fans wondering that is it the same team which could not even come close to winning initially and lost the series 1-3.

SL - 366-6 (50.0 Overs)

ENG - 132-9 (26.1 Overs)

Result- Sri Lanka won by 219 runs (DLS method)

Scorecard

That's it - Sri Lanka pick up a brilliant consolation victory in Colombo!

Sri Lanka win by a massive 219 runs (DLS method) - it's England's biggest-ever ODI defeat.

England win the series 3-1.#SLvENG scorecard ?? https://t.co/73cLYZc7df pic.twitter.com/9d55riGivz
— ICC (@ICC) October 23, 2018

As the ODI series moved forward, Sri Lanka stepped up while England became a bit complacent. Their performance in the 4th ODI as well was not what they are known for. In the final ODI of the series when Sri Lanka needed to win it to avoid a clean sweep, the Lankans did that in some style.

Almost everything went right for Sri Lanka. They won the toss, batted first, scored a mammoth total and put a stranglehold on the English batsmen. Sri Lanka's top four in Niroshan Dickwella (95), Sadeera Samarawickrama(54), Dinesh Chandimal (80) and Kusal Mendis (56) scored heavily while each of England's top four Jason Roy (4), Alex Hales (0), Joe Root (10) and Jos Buttler (0) failed.

That is the game for the taking. If it was not for the lower order partnership between Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, the game would have been over much earlier. But the partnership enured that life came a full circle and the 5th ODI too ended by means of DLS, just like all other matches of the series.

There is one more noticeable factor that has come out of this match. Sri Lanka have won dead rubbers against South Africa as well. This time also they have put up a dominating performance in a dead rubber. So is it the skills that are failing Sri Lanka or it is just the ability to handle themselves under pressure? The talent is surely there. The need is just to gel together as a unit, to have a stable leadership and put up consistent performances.