England seal ninth series victory

ENGLAND’S one-day bandwagon may continue to roll on after victory over Sri Lanka made it nine series wins in a row but captain Eoin Morgan is keen for his side to stay grounded.

The fourth one-day international followed a familiar pattern in Pallekele, with the world’s No.1 side proving too good for their hosts but thunderstorms preventing a full game from unfolding.

The tourists were home and dry in the pavilion when they were awarded an 18- r un win on t he Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, and with it an unassailable 3-0 lead.

No England side have ever won more consecutive series, but any claim this team have as record-breakers in that regard is compromised somewhat by their upset at the hands of Scotland in a standalone clash in June.

“It’s nice, but I think we have to continue being honest with ourselves,” said Morgan. “We have played some good cricket along the way … but we haven’t played great cricket so far in this tour.

“We are quite honest with where we’re at and where we need to improve. Today it was fielding, we were quite rusty, and we maybe could have been more disciplined in the areas that we bowled.”

England were set a challenging target of 274, and were comfortably in front of the DLS par at 132 for two when the rains set in.

Yet their margin would have dropped to just five runs had they lost a third wicket. That they did not was down to a costly error in the field, Joe Root reprieved by a no-ball call when umpire Lyndon Hannibal spotted an extra player outside the 30-yard circle.

England are now likely to make several changes for Tuesday’s dead rubber in Colombo. Sam Curran and Mark Wood have sat on the sidelines all series and can expect to feature, with Liam Plunkett and Joe Denly also probables after joining up with the squad this week.