SWINGING IN THE RAIN
SRI LANKA BUCKLE AS TOM TAKES LIMELIGHT
Eoin Morgan hits a four as England cruise to victory over Sri Lanka in a rain-affected match
IF nothing else comes from the soggy one-day leg of this Sri Lanka tour then at least england are discovering more and more World Cup options.
First Olly Stone put his hand up to gatecrash the World Cup party with his sheer pace in Dambulla and yesterday Tom Curran, another fringe member of england’s 50- over squad, displayed the variations that make him a viable pick.
Curran was outstanding in england’s seven- wicket third one-day international victory in what became a 21- over game after more of the heavy rain that has exposed the sheer folly of staging this tour in Sri Lanka’s monsoon season.
The heavy clouds in Kandy matched the metaphorical ones hanging over Sri Lanka whose turmoil on and off the field was increased with a defeat that gives england an unassailable 2-0 lead with two 50-over games to play.
This was all too easy for an england side who resisted the temptation to turn it into a Twenty20 exercise by bringing in an extra batsman in Alex hales and promoting Jos Buttler to open when they then faced a chase of 151 in 21 overs.
Instead eoin Morgan treated it as a truncated one-day international and was rewarded with a demonstration of the strength in depth of his squad in the form of a man who spent the summer being overshadowed by his little brother.
It was Sam Curran who took the plaudits for his starring role in the Test series victory over India but now big brother Tom showed the competition for places that has made england the best 50-over side in the world.
Curran, coming into the side for the injured Liam Dawson, took three wickets for just 17 runs in his four overs, impressing with his well-disguised slower ball out of the back of his hand and his ability to take on responsibility at the death.
It was also Curran who made the initial crucial breakthrough by dismissing Niroshan Dickwella for 36 off 20 balls after Sri Lanka had set off like a train in a bid to make up for lost time after another frustrating, gloomy day.
The hosts, reeling from corruption allegations against one of their greats in Sanath Jayasuriya, and bracing themselves for more against current players, looked set for a big score when they raced to 55 without loss off five overs.
But once Curran had Dickwella caught at the second attempt by Chris Woakes it was all downhill at the Pallekele Stadium for Sri Lanka, who lost nine wickets for 95 in their remaining 16 overs.
If Curran the elder was the pick of the bowlers then the most productive was Adil rashid who has become the wicket-taker in the middle overs of a one-day game that england lacked before their white-ball revolution. rashid, named man of the match, showed his intent with a brilliant googly to bowl Kusal Mendis with only his second ball and ended up with four for 36 off five overs that showed his absolute importance to this england one-day side.
Morgan, again making a mockery of his pre-series claim that he could drop himself from the World Cup side, made his second successive half century and fourth in four one-day innings after Jason roy had got england off to a flying start with 41 off 26 balls.
And with Ben Stokes, who finished it off with a six, joining his captain in an unbroken stand of 73 for the fourth wicket it was all over with 15 balls to spare as local time ticked towards midnight.
‘We improved on the last game,’ said Morgan. ‘It was a long day with all the delays but our bowlers were outstanding. I can’t praise them enough. To restrict Sri Lanka to 150 on a surface like this was a fantastic job. Competition for places is extremely high and we’ve got some really good headaches.’