England beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in first T20 led by Jos Buttler’s unbeaten 68 at Cardiff

England ran out comfortable winners over Sri Lanka in the first limited overs game of the English summer, securing an eight-wicket victory.

Jos Buttler’s 68 not out fired the hosts to victory, chasing down the tourists’ modest target of 130 with ease in Cardiff.

England named Chris Woakes in their starting XI, playing in his first T20 international since 2015.

Sri Lanka’s innings get off to a horrific start

England got off to a brilliant start as inside the second over Avishka Fernando launched one straight down the throat of Chris Jordan.

Jordan then struck with the ball as Danushka Gunathilaka edged behind to Buttler, before the spin of Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone saw Sri Lanka reduced to 49-3.

Mark Wood was on fire all evening with his ridiculously quick deliveries, and got the wicket of Akila Dananjaya to deepen the woes of the Sri Lankans.

Kusal Perera and Wanindu Hasaranga both departed in quick succession to leave the tourists in a perilous position of 96-6.

Dasun Shanaka was the only man to offer any resilience for Sri Lanka as he hit 50 before edging behind to Buttler with the final delivery of the innings.

Rashid and Sam Curran were the stand out bowlers for England, finishing with figures of 2-17 and 2-25 respectively.

Jos Buttler and Jason Roy start England’s innings brilliantly

The hosts wasted no time in their chase as Buttler and Jason Roy showed the aggressive intent that they are known for.

England raced into an 80-0 score inside just nine overs, but Roy was the first to fall as he swatted straight to Gunathilaka who pulled off an impressive diving catch.

Dawid Malan, the No 1 ranked T20 batsmen then came to the crease, but he could not show the same attacking intent as he was bowled by Isuru Udana for just seven.

Jonny Bairstow was the third man in and added a useful 13 runs before Buttler hit the winning run which evaded everyone in the Sri Lanka field and secure a dominant win for England who go 1-0 up in the three-match T20 series.

The two teams return to Sophia Gardens on Thursday for the second match of the series, which will be played on the same pitch.

By Josh Mann