Former England batter Mark Butcher slammed the Three Lions for his or her “slapdash, gung ho” batting towards Sri Lanka within the third Check of the recently-concluded collection, saying that they aided Lankan Lions of their victory by their poor batting. Although Sri Lanka supplied moments of battle and resilience, they misplaced the three-match Check collection to England 2-1, however not with out handing the hosts a painful eight-wicket loss at The Oval on Monday, their first-ever to the Island nation in 10 years at dwelling and simply fourth towards them at dwelling.
On day one, England had been at 221/3, however had been bundled out for 325 as a result of their excessively aggressive shot making. Sri Lanka responded with a good 263 and skittled out the hosts for simply 156 runs of their second innings, because of positive spells from Lahiru Kumara (4-21) and Vishwa Fernando (3-40). Sri Lanka had a goal of 219 runs to chase, which they knocked down simply because of a century from Pathum Nissanka (127*).
Talking on the Wisden Cricket Podcast, Butcher stated, “I’ve to say England’s batting on each events was finish of time period, gung ho, slapdash, all of the unhealthy adjectives that you possibly can provide you with about the best way that England performed from day two onwards within the match actually. In order that they [Sri Lanka] had been aided and abetted by a group that form of performed as if the victory was a foregone conclusion and form of went at it like that.”
Butcher stated that what aggravated him essentially the most was that England had been taking part in in a really pragmatic method of their earlier Check matches and batted based on sport conditions.
“After which you already know when you had earned the proper to be a bit extra expansive and return to Bazball 1.0 then do it. However the lead was solely 60, the ball was shifting round they usually form of got here out and performed like they’d 260 on the board as an alternative,” he added.
Butcher additionally lauded Lankan bowlers for his or her positive bowling, dismissing Joe Root and Harry Brook with positive inswingers. He stated that although England have made strides in slicing down ” pointless risk-taking”, they nonetheless managed to lose the match regardless of being in commanding positions.
“Then Sri Lanka as now we have talked about earlier than bowled brilliantly, knocking over Joe Root and Harry Brook with two in swingers. Vishwa Fernando, who up till this check match or that afternoon anyway had regarded completely insipid as a left-arm swing bowler. And instantly earlier than you already know it, you might be in massive massive hassle,” stated the previous participant.
“That is what’s aggravated me actually, the truth that they really made strides to form of take away that type of pointless risk-taking from the sport with a view to get the job completed, get themselves right into a place the place they had been infallible and had been going win it and that. I hope that has aggravated them too,” he concluded.
Coming to the third match, Sri Lanka received the toss and opted to subject first. England was bowled out for 325 runs within the first innings, with contributions from Ollie Pope (154 in 156 balls, with 19 fours and two sixes) and Ben Duckett (86 in 79 balls, with 9 fours and two sixes) taking England to a stable rating.
Key highlights of the innings had been a 95-run partnership for the second wicket between Duckett and Pope and latters’ half-century stands with Joe Root (13) and Harry Brook (19), wherein Pope did nearly all of the scoring.
Milan Rathnayake (3/56) was a high bowler for SL. Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, and Dhananjaya de Silva bought two wickets every.
Within the first innings, Lankan Lions misplaced wickets at common intervals. SL was reeling at 93/5 at one level, however a positive 127-run partnership between Dhananjaya de Silva, the skipper (69 in 111 balls, with 11 fours) and Kamindu Mendis (64 in 91 balls, with seven fours) took SL to 263, trailing by 62 runs. Pathum Nissanka had contributed 64 in 51 balls, with 9 fours on the high, however didn’t get assist from his batting companions.
Olly Stone (3/35) and Josh Hull (3/53) had been the highest bowlers for England. Chris Woakes bought two scalps, and Shoaib Bashir bought one wicket.
Within the England’s second innings, Lankan bowlers asserted their dominance. Aside from a half-century by Jamie Smith (67 in 50 balls, with 10 fours and a six), nothing actually stood out.
England was decreased to 82/7 at one level, however then Jamie launched a counter-attack with some stable assist from Stone (10), wherein wicketkeeper-batter displayed his free-flowing strokeplay and immense sport consciousness whereas batting with the tail.
England was bowled out for 156 runs, and England set 219 runs to win for Sri Lanka.
Lahiru (4/21) was the highest bowler for SL, whereas Vishwa (3/40) bought key wickets of Root, Brook and Jamie. Asitha Fernando took 2/49 in 12 overs whereas Milan bought one wicket.
Sri Lanka misplaced Dimuth Karunaratne early throughout the run-chase. However Pathum Nissanka stitched a 69-run partnership with Kusal Mendis (39 in 37 balls, with seven fours) to convey the group again on observe. Nissanka went on to attain his second Check ton, making 127* in 124 balls, with 13 fours and two sixes. All-rounder Angelo Mathews was additionally unbeaten at 32 in 61 balls, with three fours.
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