Woakes sinks Lanka in rain-marred ODI

DAMBULLA: England’s Eoin Morgan and Joe Root shone with the bat while teammate Chris Woakes was on fire with the ball in a 31-run victory against Sri Lanka via the Duckworth Lewis method in the rain-soaked second ODI on Saturday.

Chasing 279, Sri Lanka overcame Woakes’ triple strikes to reach 140/5 in 29 overs when heavy rain stopped play and England won the match under the scoring method governing such rain-marred matches.

Morgan’s men went 1-0 up in the five-match series which began with a washout on Wednesday and the teams now move to Kandy for the third match next Wednesday.

Earlier, Lasith Malinga rediscovered some of his old magic and claimed 5/44 to limit England to 278/9 after the tourists looked set for a 300-plus total.

Morgan led from the front with a 91-ball 92, while Test captain Root contributed 71. Akila Dananjaya dismissed Root but it was Malinga who denied the tourists a late surge, using the slower ball to good effect as England lost five wickets for 36 runs.

Woakes then derailed Sri Lanka’s chase, dismissing opener Upul Tharanga, skipper Dinesh Chandimal and Dasun Shanaka. Thisara Perera (44*) and Dhananjaya de Silva (36*) tried to put the chase back on track but the hosts had lost too many wickets by the time rain intervened.

Brief Scores: England 278/9 in 50 ovs (E Morgan 92, J Root 71, L Malinga 5/44) beat Sri Lanka 140/5 in 29 ovs (C Woakes 3/26) by 31 runs by DLS Method.