Pawan Ratnayake played an excellent century inningsImage Credit source: Getty Images
The England cricket team, which has been facing continuous failures in ODI cricket since World Cup 2023, finally got a big success. The English team, captained by Harry Brook, won the ODI series 2-1 on the Sri Lanka tour. In the third and last match of the series, England defeated host Sri Lanka by 53 runs. The stars of this team’s victory were Captain Brook himself and veteran batsman Joe Root, who scored centuries. But despite the defeat, this match was special for Sri Lanka’s new batsman Pawan Ratnayake, who scored his first century.
In this match played on Tuesday 27 January at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, England made a big score of 357 runs. From his side, first Joe Root scored his 20th ODI century. Then Captain Brook destroyed the Sri Lankan bowlers with indiscriminate batting. Brook scored a century in just 57 balls and returned after scoring 136 not out in 66 balls. Along with Root, he also made an unbeaten partnership of 191 runs for the fourth wicket. Root scored 111 runs. Apart from these, Jacob Bethel also played an important inning of 65 runs.
From Sri Lankan side, opener Pathum Nissanka also responded in style and scored a half-century in just 24 balls. Apart from them, Kamil Mishara and Kusal Mendis also made a fast start but no one could score big. Sri Lanka had lost 3 wickets for 94 runs in 9 overs. From here Pawan Ratnayake came out to bat and after this this batsman handled the entire innings single-handedly.
Wickets kept falling from the other side but Ratnayake remained steadfast and completed his first international century in 104 balls. This was only Ratnayake’s fourth international match. But it was not enough and with Ratnayake’s dismissal in the 47th over, the Sri Lankan innings was reduced to 304 runs. Adil Rashid, Liam Dawson, Will Jacques and Jamie Overton took 2 wickets each for England.
In this way, England won an ODI series away from home after almost 3 years. Its last series win abroad came in early 2023, when England won the ODI series 2-1 on the Bangladesh tour. At the same time, Sri Lanka, which proved to be consistently strong at home, got defeated in the home ODI series after almost 5 years. Earlier in 2021, it had to face defeat at the hands of India.