ENG vs SL | 1st ODI: Steady Joe Root denies exciting Lankan fast bowling to take England 1-0 up

The only bright spot in an otherwise dull game for Sri Lanka was the fast bowling by the trio of Dushmantha Chameera, Binura Fernando and Chamika Karunaratne. The three of them got the five wickets among them in the match and presented Sri Lanka with a chance to get themselves into the game. However, it was not enough as Joe Root’s unbeaten 79 from 87 balls and a partnership of 91 along with Moeen Ali was enough to prevent any conversion of that chance by Kusla Perera’s men. 

England started their chase of 186 in quite a hurry as if both the openers Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone wanted to finish the job as soon as possible and make their way to TV screens, to watch their football team face Germany. But that hurried approach didn’t last long as Bairstow chopped one from left-arm pacer Fernando. This was the second wicket as Karunaratne had already removed Livingstone. 

Soon the situation got tense as England were 80-4 after being 54-0. It could have been 80-5, had skipper Perera not dropped a regulation catch off Moeen Ali off the bowling of Chameera, who had already dismissed opposition skipper Eoin Morgan and Sam Billings and was spitting fire in Durham. Another chance went begging when Root was dropped on the third-man when he was at 36 and the England total at 110. But those were the last two chances as after them, both Moeen and Root made sure that their team reached home easily. 

Earlier in the day, after being forced to bat first, Sri Lanka deprived of their first choice batters were hit hard by England bowlers. Apart from skipper Perera’s 81 balls 73 and Wanindu Hasaranga’s 65 balls 54, none of the batters got going and only some late hits from Karunaratne managed to get the team to 185. Their collapse in particular was painful for any Sri Lankan cricket fan as, after recovery from 46-3, the team reached 145-3. 

But suddenly Hasaranga decided to play a no shot of a bouncer and was caught at square leg. Soon, from 145-3, it was 170-9 and within 25 runs, the Lankan team had lost six wickets. And thus came their downfall. Chris Woakes was the chief wrecker with four wickets and was awarded Man of the Match. The two teams would now move to The Oval in London for the second ODI.