When Sri Lanka visited England in 2006, they played their first T20 match against England at Southampton on Jun 15 2006. Sri Lankan team was packed with the world-class left-handed opener and all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan; on the other hand, England had big names like Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick, Kevin Pietersen. Mahela Jayawardene was leading Sri Lanka and Andrew Strauss was the captain of England.
Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, decided to set the target for England after winning the toss. Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga were stepped out to open the bat and Andrew Strauss gave the new ball to Tim Bresnan to open the attack. Jayasuriya was one of the best openers in the limited over cricket, and he proved it once again. He struck 41 runs off 30 balls with Upul Tharanga’s 34 from 25 balls and gave a wonderful start after making 75 runs for the first wicket in pairs. England got the first breakthrough when Collingwood dismissed Tharanga.
In the next over, the new batsman Mahela Jayawardene was also run out. Tillakaratne Dilshan then came to join Jayasuriya but within a few moments, Sri Lanka lost another wicket of Jayasuria in 9.5 overs, Dilshan also could not stay longer and was sent back by Dalrymple. After getting a good start, Sri Lanka lost their 4 wickets within 9 runs, the score was 84/4. Sri Lankan batters were struggling and wickets were falling at regular intervals. Kumar Sangakkara played some nice shots and struck 21 from 14 balls, Chamara Kapugedera scored 22 from 16 balls that helped the Sri Lanka team to reach a defending total of 163. They were wiped out at the score of 163 in 20 overs. Paul Collingwood was the most successful bowler in that match who took 4 important wickets of Sri Lanka.
Marcus Trescothick and the skipper Andrew Strauss came out to the middle to chase the target and the new ball was given to Ruchira Perera. Both the openers started well and completed their first 50 runs in 6.1 overs. But England could not take it long and lost Andrew Strauss at the score of 59 runs in 7.3 overs. Afterward, Kevin Pietersen came out to the middle and he also could not stay longer and was sent back by Jayasuriya.
Then, Paul Collingwood, Jamie Dalrymple came to support Trescothick but they could do much and were sent back by Sri Lankan bowlers. England batters could not understand the spin bowling of Jayasuriya and Dilshan and lost their main wickets. England had hope as Trescothick was still there but after his run out, England came in shock, and finally, they needed 12 runs from 8 balls.
Tim Bresnan could become the hero if he could hit the ball to the boundary when they needed 5 runs from the last ball but he struck only 2 runs and England lost the match by 2 runs.
Sanath Jayasuriya was chosen Man of the Match for his match-winning performance with bat and ball, he made 41 runs and took 2 wickets. On the other hand, Trescothick played well and made 72 runs off 58 balls but could not get enough support from other batsmen.
Result: Sri Lanka won their first even t20 match by 2 runs. Scorecard