The first ODI was abandoned because of rain, and the second was also hit by rain, but not before England had scored 278-9 and kept Sri Lanka to 140-5 in 29 overs – good enough to go 1-0 up in the five-game series.
For England, Eoin Morgan was the batting star with a 91-ball 92, with Joe Root’s support act of 71 in 83 balls equally crucial. But Sri Lanka might just have fancied their chances of staying in front of the DLS par score. That it didn’t happen was because Chris Woakes and Olly Stone did exceedingly well upfront.
Woakes for the first three wickets of Upul Tharanga, Dinesh Chandimal and Dasun Shanaka early on his way to returns of 3-26 from five overs, while Stone bowled fast and got the wicket of Niroshan Dickwella to return 1-23 from six.
“I was extremely scratchy for the first 30 balls, which isn’t a surprise, I am not a great starter. But having someone like Joe Root at the other end rotating the strike, building the partnership, is always a huge help. We really enjoy batting together and when we do get a partnership it is normally quite substantial. We would have liked for us to kick on towards 300 today and Sri Lanka came back into the game beautifully and we got just above a par score,” he explained.
“Myself and Joe, in particular, found a way to score on these particular wickets. I thought Lasith (Malinga, 5-44) came back and bowled particularly well at the end, which we found challenging, which is a nice flag-up early in the series. He obviously still has a lot to offer as an experienced and very senior bowler, so we will need to work on that going forward.”
