The start was both swift and secure. In the middle overs, there was a hustling effervescence. The close might not quite have been explosive, but it was as clever and efficient as it had to be, to grow a surging score into an imposing total. In their 324 for 7 at Cardiff, England showcased a feast of batting talents for one last time in the ODI series. Hamstrung by an injury that prevents Angelo Mathews from bowling, and damaged by a debutant bowler who proved expensive, Sri Lanka will know their hosts will take some running down.
Joe Root produced a seamless 93 from 106 balls to underpin this dynamic one-day innings, but it was arguably Jos Buttler who played the most electric knock within it. He set off with a four to fine leg, allowed few dot balls to be delivered to him, then after facing 25 deliveries, let fly with the boundaries. There were shovels over the shoulder, searing cuts, crunching drives and a six over long off, all executed with a powerful bottom hand. His tally was 70 off 45. James Vince had also hit a half-century at the top of the innings.
Danushka Gunathilaka’s part-time offspin claimed three wickets for 48 from his full quota of overs, but it was Chaminda Bandara’s 1 for 83 which is the more pertinent set of figures to the eventual score. Bandara, the debutant left-arm seamer, was wayward from the outset, and the other seam bowlers failed to pose a consistent threat. Nuwan Pradeep was also expensive again, giving away more than seven an over, as he attempts to come to grips with bowling at the death.
England’s innings purred into motion with a cover-driven boundary from Jason Roy’s bat, third ball. Though play was soon left suspended for about 25 minutes by a passing shower, the hosts’ tempo rarely waivered over the following three-and-a-half hours. Bandara bowled overs that cost 11 and 14 in the Powerplay, while more experienced bowlers delivered more disciplined, but hardly miserly, spells. By the tenth over, only seven boundaries had been struck in all, yet 66 runs had been gathered. The green tinge on the pitch, which had put both captains in the mood to bowl first, offered only modest sideways movement. The overhead cloud made for only the slightest swing.
The dismissal of Roy came somewhat against the run of play – caught on the midwicket boundary off Suranga Lakmal for a run-a-ball 34. Root, the next batsman, sent his first ball skipping through the covers for four, and Vince continued his pretty progress alongside the new man, the pair flitting efficiently between their wickets until Vince reached his first international fifty, off 54 balls. He was soon out charging Gunathilaka, who pulled his length back and slipped a ball past Vince’s advance, but neither that wicket, nor the next one, really dented England’s rate of progress. Halfway through the innings, the hosts were 138 for 3.
With a confident Gunathilaka proving so successful, Mathews banked on spin through the middle overs. Though Jonny Bairstow was occasionally tested by it during his 21 off 28, Root’s mastery of the single prevented Sri Lanka from making substantial headway. This steady beat of ones and twos was occasionally enlivened by the crash of cymbals: the reverse-paddle for four off the exceptionally part-time bowling of Kusal Mendis, the clatter through the covers at the end of the 38th over. Around the 40th over, Root went into a slight lull, by his busy standards, but began to climb gears again alongside Jos Buttler at the death.
Buttler twice hit Pradeep for consecutive fours, and thwacked a six off Lakmal in the 44th over, as he scored 45 runs from the last 20 balls he faced. It was he who propelled England’s run rate past six, and though he was out in the 48th over to give Bandara his first international wicket, had laid the groundwork for a fast finish. Thirty-three runs were hit off the last three overs.
