Jos Buttler’s cameo of 68* and the bowling efforts from Rashid Khan and Sam Curran help England take a lead over Sri Lanka in the 1st T20 by 8 wickets.
The class of England was seen in Cardiff on Wednesday after the hosts sealed an easy victory over Sri Lanka by 8 wickets to take the lead of the series by 1-0.
Opting to bat first with a trembling batting line-up, Sri Lanka only managed to post 129/7 in 20 overs which was never enough against the side who is best in the shortest format of the game as they smashed the Sri Lankan bowlers aside.
Nothing much changed for Sri Lanka as they have been struggling in white-ball cricket for a long and what the fans have witnessed on Wednesday was nothing new.
It took only nine balls for England to get rid of the first batsman, Avishka Fernando, caught by Chris Jordan. They managed to score the first boundary after 17 balls and then eventually lost their other opener, Danushka Gunathilaka before powerplay.
The skipper, Kusal Perera tried to steady the ship but he also could not finish the inning after mishitting one in the air and departed for 30 with seven overs left.
The decision to send Kusal Mendis at number 4 and Test specialist Dhananjaya de Silva at number 5 did not work out.
Mendis struggled from the start and was trapped leg-before-wicket by Liam Livingstone before he could go any further. Four balls later, de Silva followed him to the pavilion as he uppercut one straight to Adil Rashid, standing at third man.
By the start of the 10th over, Sri Lanka’s run rate was still pouring below six and they were finding ways to come back with the loss of four wickets.
Dasun Shanaka came at number six, once again showcased why he is rated high in this format of the game as he single-handedly took Sri Lanka across the 120 marks.
Although he didn’t make good starts to his innings at one stage he was struggling at 13 off 19 balls but hitting back-to-back boundaries to Mark Wood in the 14th over helped him gain some confidence.
A six that he hit to Jordan over wide long-on in the penultimate over was the summary of his innings and he managed to clear the boundary with a maximum in the final over to complete his half-century.
Sri Lanka only managed 39/2 in the powerplay. Meanwhile, England needed just 3.3 overs to score the same without a loss of a wicket. Jos Buttler and Jason Roy made their intentions clear from the start and went all as guns blazing.
They hit four boundaries off Dushmantha Chameera in the fourth over and followed it up with a 17-run over off Nuwan Pradeep. However, de Silva bowled a tight over, Buttler made sure that the powerplay finishes on top with back-to-back boundaries off Isuru Udana.
After the powerplay, the visitors finally got a breakthrough when Roy departed on 36, courtesy of an excellent catch by Gunathilaka at mid-off. Buttler kept going the same way despite Dawid Malan’s slow start at the other end.
Buttler smashed a maximum and a boundary off de Silva to complete his half-century. Even though Udana made a mess of the stumps by knocking off Malan, England got the job done to win with 17 balls to spare.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 129/7 in 20 overs (Dasun Shanaka 50, Kusal Perara 30; Adil Rashid 2-17, Sam Curran 2-25) lost to England 130/2 in 17.1 overs (Jos Buttler 68*, Jason Roy 36; Dushmantha Chameera 1-24) by 8 wickets.