Sri Lanka suffer humiliating ODI series defeat against England

This was also Sri Lanka’s third successive ODI series defeat following their 0-3 humiliation in the Caribbean and the 1-2 loss in Bangladesh in May this year.

Altogether, Sri Lanka have recorded just a solitary win in ODIs this year against Bangladesh and have suffered seven defeats with one match ending in a no-result against England.

In fact, the match that ended in a no-result would have turned into an easy win for England and a series sweep if not for heavy rain had washed out the second session of play on Sunday at Bristol.

Sri Lanka mastered only 166 runs after they were put into bat as the England seamers exploited the conditions to good effect under gloomy conditions.

Sri Lanka of course, surrendered the series to England after losing the second ODI at The Oval but they were set to come up with an improved performance and sign off the tour on a winning note.

But instead, they went from bad to worse as their batting crumbled once again having not properly acclimatised to the English conditions.

In fact, Sri Lanka’s dismal batting performance has been a major concern throughout this tour and it was the same reason that brought their downfall during the Twenty20 International series played earlier.

They continued to make the same mistakes in the ODI series as well and never looked like causing any threat to the reigning world champions in this format.

Sri Lanka always struggled to put up a challenging total on the board and their highest score in the ODI series was a modest 241 for nine, which they achieved in the second match at The Oval.

This was mainly due to a career-best innings from Dhananjaya de Silva who had the honour of making the highest individual score in the series. The 29-year-old right-hand middle order batsman at least dominated the

England bowling for a brief period before he fell just nine runs away from completing his maiden ODI hundred. Nevertheless, it was an innings of sheer determination and courage and he proved that runs could be scored against this English attack if the batsmen had concentration and the patience.

Sri Lanka’s two batting all-rounders Wanindu Hasaranga and Dasun Shanaka also performed their role well to some extent although their strike-rate was not really impressive.

However, considering the each match situation they faced in the series, their performances could be really commendable where both batted under tremendous pressure.

In fact, Hasaranga played a superb counter-attacking innings of 54 in the first ODI at Chester-le-Street helping Sri Lanka to reach a modest 185 in 42.3 overs.

Meanwhile, Shanaka twice came close to reaching a half-century in this series but on both occasions he played exceptionally well to rescue the side from total disaster.

The 29-year-old right-hander threw his wicket away after reaching a well compiled 47 in the second ODI and he then ran out of partners in the third and final match just a couple of runs short of his fifty.

Sri Lanka’s bowling, of course, was quite appalling in this series with only paceman Dushmantha Chameera making any kind of impact with his variations.