World Champions start the tour of England with a T20 win - After being crowned as the world champions of T20 in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka started their tour of England with the only Twenty 20 match at the historic ground of Oval. English conditions have always been tricky for the best experienced players of the world cricket. The touring nation has always struggled to the swinging condition and the damp weather. After the retirement of Sri Lankan duo Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene a relatively young side had a major challenge of performing to the level of a world champions. The Sri Lankan touring side has many new faces in the squad. Two young players have got their chance and out which yesterday we saw the debut of Kithuruwan Vithange.
In the
only T20 international match of the tour Sri Lanka opted for a stronger side. The stars to look out for in the game were Tilakaratne Dilshan, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews, Thisaara Perera and Lasith Malinga who joined the squad for the English tour leaving his Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians. On the other hand the home team had some young players and the team lacked the much required experience. A lot was expected from some players like Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Jim Tredwell and the skipper Eoin Morgan.
On winning the toss the English captain Eoin Morgan decided on fielding first to get the advantage of a fresh wicket. Batting first Sri Lanka had a good start scoring at a rate of 10 runs per over. But soon the scoring was halted in the third over of the game as Harry Gurney the England debutant for the game took the wicket of Tilakaratne Dilshan. He clean bowled him when he looked pretty dangerous scoring 14 runs of just 9 balls. The debutant Harry Gurney tasted his second success of the match in the 18th over of the game. He took the important wicket of Lahiru Thirimanne who scored 40 runs taking Sri Lanka to a good stage. Another debutant of the match had a dream start of the carrier as Kithuruwan Vithanage scored some good runs and handled the early downfall of Sri Lanka. He scored 38 runs taking his team to score of 78 after two quick wickets. At the end the star of the show was Thisara Perera who with his 20 ball 49 took his team to a score of 183 in the allotted 20 over. This was a par score in the conditions and chasing it was a tough task.
Chasing a target of 183 England lost their opener Michael Carberry in the second over. In his debut he managed just a score of 7. Ian Bell and Alex Hales tried to stitch the innings back as both the batsmen scored some quick runs taking their team to 45 runs in 6 over’s. But in the mission of some quick runs Ian Bell lost his wicket thus England lost two wickets in the powerplay over’s. Joe Root a known T20 specialist disappointed his fans as he too got out cheaply scoring only 5 runs. This was not all but the skipper too left early leaving his team at 85/4 in 12 over. The required rate kept on rising and the pressure on the players rose constantly. Jos Buttler and Ravi Bopara tried their best as both the batsmen scored quick runs but soon they crumbled under the required rate as the team managed to score only 174 runs losing the game by 9 runs. Lasith Malinga bowled a great spell taking 3 wickets. Angelo Mathews too performed brilliantly with the ball taking 1 wicket giving away 7 runs in his 2 over spell.
The Sri Lankans started their tour with a
T20 win thus proving their World Champion title which they won in Bangladesh earlier this year.