England recovered from an early collapse to secure a T20 series win over Sri Lanka with a game to spare.
Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran took England home after a disappointing display by the top-order batsmen.
England made two changes as Jos Buttler was struggling with a calf strain so was replaced by Jonny Bairstow, while David Willey made his first T20 appearance in two years in place of Chris Woakes.
Sri Lanka made two changes with Binura Fernando replacing Nuwan Pradeep and, thankfully for them saw, Niroshan Dickwella return in place of Dhananjaya De Silva.
Sri Lanka win the toss and choose to bat
Sri Lanka captain Kusal Perera won the toss for the second match in a row and once again elected to bat first.
Some superb footwork from Curran saw him run out Danushka Gunathilaka inside the second over, before exactly two overs later Avishka Fernando fired a high shot straight into Livingstone’s grasp to leave the tourists 18-2 in under four overs.
The two Kusal’s – Perera and Mendis – solidified Sri Lanka’s innings until the former reverse sweeped straight to Eoin Morgan to give Adil Rashid a wicket and continue his fine limited overs form.
Mendis then followed an over later as he launched Mark Wood’s delivery into orbit and was eventually caught by keeper Jonny Bairstow.
Wood then struck with the very next ball after a terrible shot from Dickwella saw Morgan take another simple catch to give the Durham man a chance of a hat trick, which he sadly would not get.
Wanindu Hasaranga then tried to launch Rashid down the ground but was completely done by the latter allowing Bairstow to complete a simple stumping.
Dasun Shanaka attempted to launch Chris Jordan an over later but did not get enough on the shot which ended up in the hands of Willey.
Sri Lanka lost no further wickets but trudged their way to a below par score of 111-7, leaving England an even easier task than what they had 24 hours earlier.
England’s innings gets off to a poor start
While the task on paper was straightforward, England made heavy weather of the chase and started just like their opponents had, as within the second over Bairstow was on his way after having his stumps demolished by Binura Fernando.
Things got even worse after Dushmantha Chameera’s delivery crashed into Dawid Malan’s pads with the original decision being not out.
The Sri Lankans reviewed the decision however, and this would prove to be a great decision as DRS showed the ball would go on to hit the stumps, meaning Malan was gone and England were 8-2.
The disappointment would continue as Eoin Morgan slapped Isuru Udana’s delivery straight to backward point, leaving England in bother at 30-3.
Roy then nailed Hasaranga’s ball straight to long-on where Shanaka was waiting to complete the catch.
Livingstone and Sam Billings began to restore parity for England before rain stopped play with the hosts 69-4.
The DLS par score at that point was 65, so if no further play was possible England would take a slender victory.
It was then announced play would resume at 9:55pm, and that the game would now be an 18-over chase, with England needing 34 more runs from 36 deliveries to wrap up the series.
Livingstone then pulled off an incredible shot, scooping Chameera for six to put England on the brink of a series win.
However, his partner Billings would not stay with him as he was fooled by Hasaranga’s delivery and dragged onto his stumps.
Curran then came in and he would be the man who win the match for England in style as he launched Akila Dananjaya back over his head for six.
England had secured an eventual comfortable victory, albeit not in the ruthless manner shown a day before.
England also go 2-0 up in the three-match series with the final T20 of the series taking place at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton on Saturday.
By Josh Mann
