BIRTHDAYS
Matchwinner Curran stakes his England claim
MARTINA NAVRATILOVA (62) – 18-time tennis Grand Slam singles champion. THOMAS HEARNS (60) – World boxing champ in four weight divisions. GLADSTONE SMALL (57) – England and Warwickshire pace bowler. TOM CURRAN added his name to the everincreasing list of England one-day players screaming ‘Pick Me!’.
The Surrey bowler would not have played in this seven-wicket win if it wasn’t for Liam Dawson’s tourending injury – but boy did he take his opportunity with 3-17 in another rain shortened game.
England’s batters have been grabbing most of the headlines but their bowlers are catching up, winning just as many matches as the power-hitters.
With skipper Eoin Morgan again leading the charge with 58 not out to secure a 2-0 lead with two games to play, England showed once again that their ODI unit can adapt and thrive in any conditions, even when it basically becomes a T20 thrash.
In a game reduced to 21 overs per side, England only needed 18.3 to overhaul Sri Lanka’s modest 150-9 thanks to Curran’s box of bowling tricks and the best all-round performance from Ben Stokes in a long time.
Stokes was there alongside his captain on 35 not out, hitting the winning runs with a towering straight six.
But he also did his bit with the ball after trying to persuade the officials to get the game started as the afternoon rain eased.
With both teams spending hours cooped up in their dressing rooms as the officials waited for the rain to completely stop, it was no surprise that the Sri Lankan opener flew out of the traps like hare-hungry Dickwella c Woakes b Curran ............. 36 Sam’wickrama c Woakes b Rashid ...35 Mendis b Rashid ....................................... 0 Chandimal c Rashid b Curran ............ 34 Perera c Roy b Rashid ............................ 0 De Silva c Roy b Curran .......................... 3 Shanaka b Rashid .................................... 21 Dananjaya run out ................................... 7 Malinga not out ........................................ 2 Aponso run out ......................................... 0 Extras (b2, lb7, w3) .................................. 12 Total (9 wkts, 21 overs) ....................... 150 Fall: 1-57, 2-59, 3-94, 4-94, 5-110, 6-138, 7-146, 8-150, 9-150; Bowling: Woakes 4-0-37-0; Stone 3-0-24-0; Curran 4-0-17-3; Ali 1-0-6-0; Rashid 5-0-36-4; Stokes 4-0-21-0
Roy lbw b Dananjaya .............................. 41 Bairstow c Perera b Aponso ................. 4 Root b Aponso ........................................... 8 Morgan not out ....................................... 58 Stokes not out ......................................... 35 Extras (lb2, w5) ......................................... 7 Total (3 wkts, 18.3 overs) ................... 153 Fall: 1-18, 2-34, 3-80; Bowling: Malinga 4-0-39-0; Aponso 3.3-0-27-2; Dananjaya 4-0-33-1; de Silva 4-0-23-0; Pradeep 2-0-21-0; Perera 1-0-8-0
England won by 7 wkts
greyhounds, but they soon ran out of puff. Niroshan Dickwella’s first eight scoring shots were all boundaries to varied parts of the ground as they raced to 55-0 from five overs.
It was Curran who put the brakes on by having Dickwella caught at mid-on for 36 and from there Sri Lanka simply never found top gear again losing 9-95 in the following 16 overs.
Adil Rashid somehow managed to grip the wet ball well enough to turn both his leg break and googly to good effect and claim 4-36 from his five overs and the manof-the-match award.
Rashid has been doing this all year through and he is a seasoned international performer. Curran was playing in just his ninth onedayer having missed out in the entire English summer, so the pressure was on him to deliver – and that is exactly what he did.
Jason Roy’s rapid fire 41 took the sting out of the chase and allowed Morgan to anchor the innings, ensuring that England’s eight-series unbeaten run would be extended to nine.