England complete series whitewash with another comfortable victory

England’s bowlers sealed a convincing victory at the Ageas Bowl by skittling Sri Lanka for just 91 to secure a 3-0 whitewash in the T20I series.

It is worth noting that Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan’s opening stand of 105 provided their side with a solid platform to push on from despite Eoin Morgan being forced to reshuffle his top-order.

Whilst Jos Buttler remained sidelined with the calf injury that has made him a doubt for the upcoming fixtures against Pakistan, Jason Roy also sat out of the series finale with a tight hamstring.

This provided an opportunity for the Yorkshire pair to open England’s batting, and they were determined to make the most of it.

After getting to grips with the Sri Lankan attack, Bairstow demonstrated the ball-striking abilities that have made him a household name in white-ball cricket across the last five years. A number of well-timed drives moved him towards 50 in spite of an admirable effort from Wanindu Hasaranga, who nearly pulled off an outstanding catch at deep-mid-wicket.

It was a welcome return to form for Malan too. The ICC number one ranked T20I batsman has come under slight scrutiny with his slow starts and struggles on sluggish pitches leading to suggestions in the media that England may be better off in utilising the capabilities of Ben Stokes three.

That being said, criticism has been harsh with Malan preferring to accelerate later on in his innings while his average and statistics are impeccable. Once the former Middlesex skipper found his stride, he combined power and grace to make an excellent 76.

The duo worked in tandem to post England’s fourth-highest T20I opening partnership and their side’s biggest T20I opening partnership that a certain Alex Hales has not been involved in.

Bairstow was dismissed soon after reaching his half-century after he missed out on meeting Isuru Udana’s yorker on the full and was bowled.

Liam Livingstone was promoted to number three with the exclusion of Roy, but the Lancashire man failed to continue his impressive form and was out for 14.

Livingstone, Sam Billings, Morgan, Malan and the returning Moeen Ali fell with the hosts losing five wickets for just 19 runs. The pace of Dushmantha Chameera caused problems with the Sri Lankan quick recording career-best figures of 4-17.

Chris Jordan hit consecutive fours in the final over to guide his side to a strong total of 180 which, going off the tourists batting this series, was always likely to be a winning one.

Kusal Perera opted to bring in Lakshan Sandakan in place of Akila Dananjaya and move himself into an opening role in order to replace Avishka Fernando with Oshada Fernando.

It did not take too long before the latter was required at the crease after Danushka Gunathilaka was surprised by the extra bounce generated by David Willey and merely helped the ball into the hands of Malan at second slip.

Perera’s lacklustre series came to an end with another disappointing score, and Kusal Mendis would fall shortly after. Despite a lack of strong appeals, umpire Martin Saggers adjudged Mendis to have edged into the gloves of Bairstow and Ultra-edge showed he was right.

Fernando somewhat justified his selection after scoring 19 runs, but his strike rate of just 70.37 hardly made his innings a dominating one.

If Billings’ brilliant direct-hit from the deep to run out Dasun Shanaka was not rare enough, Jordan could not believe his eyes when Hasaranga edged to Malan at slip in the 14th over. The Sussex man’s celebration just showed that those types of dismissals are a rarity for him.

The same principles that led to their failure in previous fixtures applied to Sri Lanka’s batting again, with an absence of basic technique and overhitting letting them down.

Binura Fernando top-scored with 20, however, it was not enough for his side to reach the 100 mark in what was the worst of their three dismal showings with the bat this summer. Ali picked up the final wicket to secure the win and put Sri Lanka out of their misery.

Malan was named Man of the Match with an innings that secures his hold onto that number three position, whilst Sam Curran was named Player of the Series following a consistent number of bowling displays.

England will inevitably be happy with such a convincing series win, but it would not be a surprise if deep down Morgan would prefer a sterner challenge in the ODI series that commences on Tuesday.

Mickey Arthur has reiterated that he hopes his young side will learn from such damaging defeats and come out the other end as better players, but in reality, with the T20 World Cup just months away, Sri Lanka need to improve quickly.

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