England learn nothing from victory in deluge

IT MAY be yet another series win for what is becoming England’s best ever one-day side but there will surely be little they can learn moving towards the World Cup from the rain-ruined farce being played out in Sri Lanka.

Yesterday saw a fourth one-day international out of four affected by the monsoon season and the second victory for England decided by the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern calculation.

Together with a win in what became a 21-over match it was enough to give Eoin Morgan’s side a 3-0 lead with just Tuesday’s final match in Colombo to come in this sorry, soggy excuse of a series. Take out that one-off loss to Scotland in June and that’s nine one-day series wins in a row.

The heaviest rain yet came with England well placed to pull off their highest run-chase in Sri Lanka at 132 for two from 27 overs in pursuit of the home side’s competitive 273 for seven in what Morgan described as a ‘scrappy’ match.

It was predictable, too, with the heavens opening at exactly the same point in late afternoon as it has done in all the other matches, the only saving grace being that a day game at least allowed a reasonable amount of cricket.

There is no doubt England were again worthy winners, with Morgan and Joe Root ensuring they kept ahead of the required rate with measured batting after the mystery spin of Akila Dananjaya had accounted for Alex Hales and Jason Roy.

But the futility of the exercise was summed up by Nasser Hussain who, commentating for Sky, called the decision to stage this series in the rainiest month of the Sri Lankan calendar ‘ridiculous.’

‘We have to look at the future tours programme,’ added Hussain. ‘Whenever there is a month without cricket the game insists on filling it with yet another series but this is not good enough.

‘England shouldn’t be here at this time of year.’

The last time England were in Sri Lanka for a one-day series — and that was closer to Christmas — was four years ago when they lost 5-2 so this at least is a measure of how far they have come with a home World Cup looming.

It is a measure, too, of how far Sri Lanka have fallen.

England head for Colombo on Tuesday after this 18-run victory.