Free-scoring Curran raises bar in Kandy
IF THE bars dotted around the banks of the Pallekele stadium had not been within full view of the ground, Sam Curran would have emptied them.
The 20-year-old all-rounder is not even old enough to order a drink here in Sri Lanka, but once again in his fledgling career he produced an innings a player with five times as many caps would have been thrilled to deliver.
For the third time he has managed to pull England out of a sticky situation and by his clean, crisp striking of a cricket ball, swung the game firmly towards his side.
He swatted 64 vital runs to add to Jos Buttler’s brilliant 63, and by the time he was finished England’s total of 285 on a dry and turning pitch was already starting to look like a match-winning one.
Six times he sent the ball soaring over the ropes for a maximum so that just when the Sri Lankans thought they had hit back hard following their defeat in Galle, Curran struck another body blow.
“I’m not sure if I’ve hit six sixes before,” said Curran, who became the first player to bring up his first three half-centuries with a six. “It was good fun out there and we’re in a great position.
“I’m a person who just goes out there and tries to give my best for the team and luckily there has been a few nice knocks.
“I try to play in my natural style and mindset and it came off today. I play my best cricket when I’m keeping an open mind and watching the ball.
“I’m just trying to play the situation as best I can and I’m doing that better than I did against India in the summer because I’m trusting the lower order a bit more and learning every day.”
Curran has the makings of a superstar and is certainly a fast learner – he managed to hang around on a tricky surface before unleashing the full range of his strokeplay with last man James Anderson for company.
He has got some decent cricketers to learn from too, none more so than Buttler, who took his mastery of the sweep, both orthodox and reverse, to Olympic curling levels. In the end it did for him when he top-edged a reverse to what became square leg, but he had kept the scoreboard moving and made sure England had a foothold in the match that Curran turned into a trench. “We’ve trained hard against spin in the nets and Jos prepared massively for this game by playing those shots in training,” said Curran. “He was so confident sweeping and reverse sweeping – I just slogged a few at the end and luckily it came off! The good thing for us is the ball is now spinning off the straight and the cracks have opened up, so it is great to have scored as many as we did.”
There was no let-up in England’s positivity at the start of their innings despite losing Keaton Jennings early to the seam of Suranga Lakmal. It is an approach they have identified for spinning surfaces and, as they made it to lunch with 120-4, it is clearly working.
Rory Burns was a little skittish against spin on debut but here he was far more assured, using the sweep to good effect in his 43 while watching Ben Stokes and Joe Root depart at the other end.
Stokes’ first taste of life at first down started well enough, but he too was undone by spin, trapped lbw, before Root was bowled meekly by Malinda Pushpakumara.
Jack Leach closed out the day with a bit of magic as he bowled Kaushal Silva with a beauty to leave the hosts on 26-1, and England will be aiming to ensure there is more of that to come.
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