I knew they could do it; I just had a feeling that Sunday was a glitch in the Lions game that prevented them from a series whitewash. With only three games to play, and two already decided for, it was today’s match that was the series decider… from early on it looked to be going the Sri Lankans way, but it wasn’t long before England had the game tightly in their grip!
Three Lions wickets fell early and left them at 38-3 and certainly did not look promising. But England captain James Taylor and fellow England hopeful Ben Stokes created a partnership that was going to be a hard one to break. A stand of 98 between the pair looked invincible with Taylor playing the ‘anchor’ role with 50 from 91 balls, whilst Stokes had free reign and hit 73 from 65 balls with an impressive three 6’s and seven 4’s. After Stokes’ departure it saw the acceleration in Taylor’s innings making his second 50 in just a further 37 deliveries with eight 4’s and a 6 in total, making this an incredible innings. Now with James Harris at the crease, he and Taylor were able to make another significant partnership of 74, Harris only making 29 of the runs, just showing the latter speed of Taylor’s innings who finally ended up with 111 to his name – his second one-day tonne in just three games! Surely now even closer to an England call-up?! With the help of Taylor the Lions were able to make a very reasonable total of 282… which turned out to be an easily defendable target thanks to the newly adjusted bowling attack that graced the Northampton field.
After being outplayed last match, the danger men of the Sri Lankan side at the top of the order were dealt with correctly this time around, Harris having Warnapura caught behind, going to only the fourth delivery of the innings. He was closely followed by Thirimanne an over later again caught behind but this time to England hopeful Chris Woakes… the matter only got worse when Rajapaksa also edged Harris behind to give Bairstow his third catch of the innings after only 2.4 overs! So at 3-7 the Sri Lankans looked in a similar position to that of England only two days before and the Lions were probably relishing this fact, with three down already they weren’t going to let this go easily. It was the turn of debutant Boyd Rankin to take the following two wickets as things were beginning to slightly improve for the ‘As’, but within the space of three deliveries the problem was soon eliminated… 5-51 the Sri Lankans needed some serious runs on the board! Meaker pitched in to remove Kulasekara for 9 but it was the pick of the bowlers, slow left-armer Simon Kerrigan who seriously lowered Sri Lanka’s chances of reaching a respectable score.
After Kerrigan claimed his three wickets Sri Lanka were on 9-140, and removed two of the only four batsmen that reached double figures, the Lions were only facing one outcome possible now, a victory plain and simple… Woakes took charge of obtaining the last wicket to dismiss the opposition for 147, just 147! A stunning victory by all accounts and I must say I was delighted to see England wrap up another victory and to put it like the ECB, it was Taylor-made – loving the support for Taylor.
There is not huge support for our other England teams like the Lions or the U19s and the like, as I witnessed at Worcester… so hence my blogs to try and raise their profile. It really is some great cricket to watch and I fully support them all the way, more people should take an interest, plus it gives you an insight into the up and coming players who may soon be sporting an England shirt. Looking forward to their tours this winter and will hopefully keep you posted!
Photo Credit: zimbio.com
Caught At Slip 