Sri Lanka inflicts heaviest ODI defeat on England

Sri Lanka inflicted upon England the heaviest defeat – in terms of runs – in their ODI history to clinch a morale-boosting victory in Colombo. Despite not having won any of their five most recently completed ODIs, Sri Lanka took advantage of a fine batting track and a slightly under-strength England attack to produce a vastly improved performance with the bat.

And, after their top four all scored half-centuries – the first time since 1998 each of Sri Lanka’s top four had passed 50 in the same ODI innings – in producing their highest-ever ODI total against England, they had them three down within 10 balls of their reply to all but settle this match as a contest.

   

While the weather had the final word – of course it did; it’s been the most consistent performer in the series – and prevented the possibility of England being bowled out within 27 overs, the fact that Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method was utilised to ascertain the result should do nothing to dilute the chasm that was the margin of victory: 219 runs is a thrashing. Only 21 times has an ODI been decided by a larger run margin: about half of those results were from games between Full Members and Associate Members.

There will be those who suggest England were punished for a certain amount of complacency ahead of this game. And it is true, in resting their captain, Eoin Morgan, and opening bowler, Chris Woakes, to provide opportunity for other players, they took decisions they may well not have done had the series not already been decided ahead of this match.

It is true, too, that some of England’s fielding dipped way below the standards they have set in recent times. Certainly Tom Curran’s dropping of Dinesh Chandimal, at midwicket, was uncharacteristic and expensive (Chandimal had 6 at the time), while Moeen Ali also missed a relatively straightforward chance offered by Akila Dananjaya in the last over of the Sri Lanka innings. Not since the defeat in Scotland in June have England looked so off-colour.

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