Sam Curran and Jason Roy fired on their home ground before Joe Root and Eoin Morgan hit unbeaten half-centuries as England thumped Sri Lanka by eight wickets at The Kia Oval to wrap up an ODI series victory with a game to spare.
Curran (5-48) captured his maiden international five-wicket haul – including three wickets inside his first two overs – as England reduced Sri Lanka to 21-4 and then limited them to 241-9, with David Willey taking 4-64 and Dhananjaya de Silva hitting a run-a-ball 91 for the tourists.
Curran’s Surrey team-mate Roy – back in the England side after a hamstring issue – struck 60 from 52 balls, bossing a 76-run stand with opening partner Jonny Bairstow (29) as the home side made a rapid start to the chase.
Root, just like in Durham on Tuesday, then guided England to victory with an unbeaten half-century, backing up his 79 in the north east with 68 in south London and compiling a match-winning stand of 140 with Morgan (75no) as the hosts eased to their target in 43 overs to take an unassailable 2-0 lead.
- England vs Sri Lanka scorecard
- Second ODI – as it happened
- Live cricket on Sky Sports
England’s victory made it five wins in as many games against their beleaguered opponents, having swept the T20 series 3-0 and won Tuesday’s first ODI at Emirates Riverside by five wickets.
England – who have not lost an Oval ODI since going down to New Zealand in 2015 – will now be aiming to complete a 3-0 series victory in Sunday’s third and final ODI in Bristol, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10.30am.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka – who have now lost seven of their last eight ODIs – will be looking for a complete team batting performance, after following scores of 91 all out in the final T20 and 185 all out in the first ODI with another below-par outing, starting when four batsmen fell inside seven overs.
England vs Sri Lanka
July 4, 2021, 10:30am
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Captain Kusal Perera (0) and Aviskha Fernando (2) were out lbw to Sam Curran in the second over, before the same bowler castled Pathum Nissanka (5) through the gate on the drive in the fourth and Charith Asalanka (3) then clothed Willey to short midwicket in the seventh.
Dhananjaya sparked Sri Lanka with a flurry of fours and a 58-ball fifty, sharing partnerships of 65 and 78 with Wanindu Hasaranga (26) and Dasun Shanka (47) for the fifth and sixth wickets respectively.
Hasaranga was dropped on 10 – Bairstow only able to parry the ball as he leapt athletically to his right after a 93mph delivery from Mark Wood found the edge – but Sam Curran then had the batsman caught at deep square.
Dhananjaya – who would have been run out on 40 had Sam Curran’s shy at the wicketkeeper’s end been accurate – found another decent ally in Shanaka, who creamed one of the innings’ two sixes.
Sam Curran has taken as many wickets today as he had in previous eight ODI's. #ENGvSL
Dhananjaya perished nine runs short of a maiden ODI ton when he took on Willey’s short ball and ballooned to deep backward square, while Shanaka missed out on a milestone, too – a fourth ODI fifty – when he cracked Willey to deep cover having put on another 42 with Chamika Karunaratne (21).
Curran achieved his milestone, though, when he had Karunaratne caught behind on the pull by Bairstow as he completed a first five-for for England after two previous four-wicket hauls in Test cricket.
Moen not used with the ball
Moeen Ali did not bowl a ball in the Sri Lanka innings, with the Curran brothers – Tom having come into the England XI for the rested Chris Woakes – David Willey, Mark Wood and leg-spinner Adil Rashid bowling their full allocation of 10 overs.
Willey was also eyeing a five-wicket haul once he made Binura Fernando (17) his fourth victim at the start of the final over but Dushmantha Chameera’s aggressive shots from the final three balls – one of which went for six over long-on – evaded the England fielders.
Willey has now taken 10 wickets in his last three games against Sri Lanka, with Thursday’s return following 3-44 in the first ODI at Emirates Riverside and 3-27 in the third and final T20 in Southampton.
Roy missed the third T20 and opening ODI but showed no ill-effects of his hamstring niggle as he struck eight fours inside the first eight overs of the chase having replaced Liam Livingstone in the England XI – Roy was on 40 and Bairstow just nine by the time the opening stand reached fifty.
Bairstow got going by blazing two fours and a six off Asitha Fernando in the ninth over but then chopped leg-spinner Hasaranga onto his stumps in the 13th, while Roy, who reached a 20th ODI fifty from 47 balls, was out to a leaping catch from Dhananjaya at midwicket at the start of the 18th.
Sri Lanka were unable to prise any more wickets, although they would have removed Morgan on 40 if captain Perera had gathered a tough chance up close to the stumps off Hasaranga’s bowling in the 31st over.
As it was, Morgan advanced to a 47th ODI half-century, Root a 35th and England to a series-sealing victory as the one-sided nature of these white-ball clashes with Sri Lanka continued.
Watch the third and final ODI between England and Sri Lanka, from Bristol, live on Sky Sports Cricket (channel 401) and Sky Sports Main Event (channel 401) from 10.30am on Sunday.
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