Roy, spinners help England to win one-off T20

England opening batsman Jason Roy led a charmed life to smash 69 off 36 balls before legspin duo Joe Denly and Adil Rashid shared seven wickets to lead the tourists to a 30-run win over Sri Lanka in a lone Twenty20 International on Saturday.

England, who won the five-match One Day International series 3-1 against the hosts, posted 187-8 in their rain-interrupted innings after being put in to bat first.

Sri Lanka lost the top half of their batting to the England spinners with just 77 on the board and were finally all out for 157 on the last ball of their innings.

Denly, playing his first match for England since a T20 against Pakistan in Dubai in February, 2010, opened the bowling and made an immediate impact by dismissing Kusal Mendis in his first over. He then picked up the other opener Niroshan Dickwella in his next over.

The 32-year-old returned in the last over of the match to add two more wickets to his tally to finish with match figures of 4-19 to script a strong comeback to international cricket.

Sri Lanka’s batsmen also failed to read much of Rashid’s bowling, with his four overs of leg-spin costing just 11 runs for three wickets.