England stays ahead after rain ruins third ODI
England remained 1-0 up against Sri Lanka with two matches left to play after rain meant the third One-Day International in their five-match series ended in a no-result in Bristol on Sunday (June 26).
Chasing 249 for victory, England was 16 for 1 from four overs when rain stopped play for good.
A minimum of 20 overs was needed in the second innings for a result to be declared under the Duckworth-Lewis method. But the players were off the field when the umpires abandoned the match at 5.30pm local time.
On Friday, Sri Lanka had 34.1 overs in the field without any success as England won the second ODI at Edgbaston by ten wickets to go 1-0 up in the five-match series after Tuesday’s tie at Trent Bridge. At Edgbaston, England openers Jason Roy (112 not out) and Alex Hales (133 not out) both posted their ODI best scores in an unbroken stand of 256. It was a very different story for Hales at the County Ground on Sunday when he fell for a duck off the first ball he faced, caught behind chasing a wide delivery from Suranga Lakmal.
Earlier, Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett took three wickets apiece as Sri Lanka was restricted to 248 for 9 after Eoin Morgan won the toss. Woakes had figures of 3 for 34, including two wickets with his last two balls, after Plunkett made early inroads on his way to 3 for 46.
Three Sri Lanka batsmen – Dinesh Chandimal (62), Angelo Mathews (56) and Kusal Mendis (53) – made fifties. But all three of them fell going for big leg-side shots, with Sri Lanka’s total looking below par at the end.
England had a wicket just five balls into the match when Danushka Gunathilaka played on to David Willey when trying to leave the ball. Kusal Perera fell for nine when he got a top edge off Plunkett and Jos Buttler held a skier.
Mendis pulled Chris Jordan for four and six off successive deliveries, but he was out for his ODI best score when he holed out off Plunkett to Hales at deep mid-wicket.
Chandimal then completed a 65-ball fifty but got a thick edge straight to Jordan at third man while trying to hit Woakes. That put an end to Chandimal’s fourth-wicket stand of 80 with Mathews, who later skied a pull off Jordan to Buttler.
Woakes also picked wickets of Farveez Maharoof, who was caught in the deep and Upul Tharanga (40), who lost his middle stump.
The series continues with a day-night match at The Oval in London on Wednesday.
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