England's ODI team once again had to overcome the weather as well as a strong start from Sri Lanka to take an unassailable 2-0 lead with 2 to play in the series.
For the 5th straight game on this tour, play was affected by heavy afternoon showers meaning that the game itself was cut down to just 21 overs a side. Sri Lanka batted first and on a pitch and outfield still damp from the earlier downpour they added quick runs including an opening partnership of 57 from 33 balls between Samarawickrama and Dickwella. England, however, struck back through the excellent Adil Rashid (4-36) and the recalled Tom Curran (3-17) to limit Sri Lanka to just 150. Despite losing Bairstow and Root fairly early on in the run chase, assured innings from Jason Roy, Eoin Morgan, and Ben Stokes saw England home at a canter.
Match Analysis
The value of a good leg-spinner in white ball cricket
Shane Warne’s success throughout the 1990’s brought the art of leg-spin back to the forefront of the cricketing world. Suddenly every team was looking for their version of the great Australian spinner and while there were many pretenders to the thrown no one can claim to have had as bigger impact as Warne did both during his career and since. Indeed, within the Test Match format of the game, leg-spin is once again struggling to establish itself. There is only 1 leg-spinner currently ranked in the world’s top 20 Test bowlers and that is Pakistan’s Yasir Shah who is struggling to impose himself on the Australian batting line-up during their current tour of the UAE.
However, while the Test Match leg-spinner seems to once again be going out of fashion, within the One-Day and T20 games they are very much in vogue with 4 of the world’s top 10 ODI bowlers plying their trade as wrist spinners
<grammarly-btn>Whereas the inaccuracy of leg-spin can be seen as a disadvantage in Test cricket where there is need to try and wear the batsman down, not give him any boundary balls and force him into a mistake, the variation that it provides in white ball cricket where batsmen are generally willing to play higher risk shots makes it a key weapon in a side's bowling attack. Unlike Warne, most of the top white ball leg-spinners today bowl the googly (see cricketing 101 below) with some even using it more often than they do the standard leg-break. Rashid picked up 2 wickets in this match with 2 excellent googlies and he also picked up another wicket with a rank full toss. In a Test, a batsman has time to watch and wait for that full toss and hit it to the boundary but in an ODI or T20 game he must play his shots and this is when the leg-spinner like Rashid comes into his own.
Rashid’s form and fitness have been key to England’s meteoric rise to the top of the ODI rankings. With all the fuss over his selection for the Test squad earlier this summer, there was a real concern that it may influence Rashid’s form and the general well-being of a player who has always been seen as lacking the kind of mental fortitude to be a top-class performer. However, that is clearly not the case and was demonstrated again in this match as Rashid became Sri Lanka's tormentor in chief. In the last game, it was obvious that Sri Lanka were planning to attack his bowling as Perera launched both Rashid's 1st & 5th deliveries of the series into the crowd. Attempting a similar feat today, Perera was out 1st ball as Rashid took 2 wickets in 2 deliveries to deal a body blow to Sri Lanka’s innings from which they never really recovered.
The other Curran brother takes his turn to shine for England
I had mentioned in my last blog that to win this series England would have to consider their options in the middle overs and ensure that they kept the pressure on Sri Lanka's batsmen by picking up vital wickets throughout that period. I had also suggested that England perhaps look at recalling Tom Curran to the side to provide that little bit of an X-Factor to their bowling attack. Whether Curran would have played had Liam Dawson (who I strongly criticised in my last blog) had been fit is tough to say but England's selectors will be patting themselves and the young Surrey bowler on the back after an excellent performance following 9 months away from the international fold.
Curran's main weapon in this match was his array of slower balls that flummoxed all of Sri Lanka's batsmen who between them could only muster 17 runs from the 24 deliveries he sent down. The performance by Curran was even better when you put his figures in comparison to any other seamer on this surface who with the exception of Ben Stokes all went at more than 8 an over. His ability to grip what must have been a wet and slippery ball and still maintain his variations was incredible. With Ollie Stone having impressed in the 2nd match, Curran showing good form today and the likes of Plunkett, Wood and Willey all waiting in the wings, England are beginning to show the kind of strength and depth that they hope will deliver them a first ever World Cup in 9 months time.
Sri Lanka outgunned in the batting department
These are pretty dark times for Sri Lankan cricket. There terrible performance in the recently completed Asia Cup saw them part ways with former captain Angelo Mathews, the kind of experienced ball striker that they could really do with in their fragile-looking batting line-up.
Credit in this match must go to the opening pair who got Sri Lanka off to a bit of a flyer. It was fantastic to see how quickly the local people of Kandy came flooding back into the ground upon hearing that their beloved cricket team were finally playing and doing well. However, that joy didn’t last long with wickets falling at regular intervals after the initial breakthrough and the middle order struggling to get after any of England’s bowlers. Captain Dinesh Candimal played a particularly painful innings of 34 from 42 balls including just 2 boundaries. Towards the end, it became the kind of situation where for England they were quite happy to see him remain at the crease such was his inability to either pierce the field or go over the top. With no Mathews or Thirimanne in the squad and the talented Kusal Mendis in terrible form at number 3 the onus is very much on Candimal to be Sri Lanka’s main man. However, as the graphic below shows there is a massive gulf in class and sheer hitting power between the 2 teams which suggests that England will dominate the remaining 2 matches.
<grammarly-btn>England for their part much are more capable and focused than Sri Lanka. At one point this afternoon members of the England team were so keen to ensure that play was possible that they actually helped the local ground staff to remove the covers and dispose of the vast amounts of rainwater that had fallen. There is a hunger about this England team and with competition for places hotting up it seems unlikely that they will take their foot off the gas for the next game due to be played (weather permitting) this Saturday.
Cricketing 101 - The googly
The googly! One of a host of rather odd terms that you hear across the game of cricket is a word used to describe a delivery bowled by a leg-spin bowler that turns back into the right-handed batsman. Given that the leg-spinner's standard delivery will turn away from a right-hander, the googly or wrong-un (wrong one) as it is sometimes referred to is used as a surprise ball.
From a batsman’s point of view, picking the googly is a case of both watching the bowlers hand with the delivery coming out of the back of the hand compared to the standard leg break that comes out of the side of the hand. Furthermore, the batsman can look for the angle and rotation of the seam of the ball to give himself a clue as to which way it will turn. Of course, this all makes it sound a lot easier than it really is and during the pressure of a match situation batsmen regularly fail to pick the delivery.
Watch Adil Rashid's 2 wickets (3min 40 seconds & 9mins 10 seconds) with googlies plus the rest of the action below
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