Sri Lanka’s batting woes continued against England in the first ODI of the series after Chris Woakes and David Willey ripped apart the batting unit at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday, June 29. The visitors were bundled out for 185 after being 145/3 at a point in the game.
After being put into bat, Sri Lanka had a struggling start after openers Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera only managed to put 23 on the board for the first wicket.
Nissanka was the first one to depart for 5 after he was removed by Chris Woakes and his dismissal was followed by a couple of more wickets going down in quick succession.
The visiting team was struggling at 46/3 when captain Perera was joined by Wanindu Hasaranga in the middle and the two tried to show some resistance after stitching a stand of 99 runs.
But Hasaranga miscued a pull stroke on a short delivery from Woakes and was caught in the deep by Livingstone for 54.
The right-handed batsman’s departure broke the shackles and the visitors suffered another collapse where they were reduced to 160/8 with Perera who was also back in the hut. He was undone by David Willey for 73.
A lot of credit goes to the English bowlers as well, especially Woakes and Willey. The two pacers troubled the Sri Lankan batsmen with the pace and some disciplined line and length.
Woakes eventually returned with a four-wicket haul while Willey had three wickets to his name during the course.
While the home side was impressive with the bowling, the fielding was on spot as well.
Sri Lanka lost their last two wickets, courtesy runout with Sam Billings being involved in both of them. Billings repeated what he did in the last T20I when he sent Dasun Shanaka packing.
The right-hander came charging in from the deep to hit the bull’s eye at the non-striker’s end and sent Shanaka back in the pavilion. This time it was Praveen Jayawickrama at the receiving end in a similar manner.
But this isn’t the first instance where Sri Lanka have suffered a batting collapse. Something similar was witnessed during the T20I series between the two sides which the Lankan side lost 0-3.