England powered by a stroke-filled half century from opener Jason Roy cruised to a comfortable 30-run win over Sri Lanka in the one-off T20 international played at the R Premadasa Stadium on Saturday to complete a successful one-day series for captain Eoin Morgan.
 England cricketer Jason Roy raises his bat to the crowd after scoring a half-century (50 runs) during the international Twenty20 cricket match between Sri Lanka and England at the R. Peremadasa Stadium in Colombo on October 27, 2018. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP) |
England had already won the five-match ODI series 3-1.
England benefitted by some poor catching by the Lankans to rattle up a score of 187-8 after being invited to bat first. Sri Lanka were never in the hunt after off-spinner Joe Denly had removed openers Niroshan Dickwella (3) and Kusal Mendis (1) cheaply for 16 runs by the third over and folded up for 157 in 20 overs.
Denly playing his first international for England after a lapse of eight years made up for lost time by finishing with four wickets for 19 runs on his comeback and to pick up the Man of the Match award ahead of Roy.
Leg-spinner Adil Rashid proved an ideal foil to Denly taking 3 wickets for 11 runs so that both spinners combined did the major part of the damage claiming seven wickets for 30 runs in 8 overs in a stunning performance. Skipper Thisara Perera played a lone hand scoring 57 off 31 balls inclusive of six sixes and a fours, but Sri Lanka had left it too late for this late spurt with the asking rate having risen to over 15 an over.
Roy’s innings was full of drama - he survived an appeal for obstructing the field at 21 when scampering for a run, and was dropped thrice in the space of two overs at 34, 41 and 53 before he was finally dismissed under edging a delivery from Lakshan Sandakan to wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella.
By that time Roy had done most of the damage to the Lankan bowling and set England heading towards a challenging total. Roy hit six sixes and four fours in his attractive 36-ball knock for 69. His aggressive approach helped England maintain a healthy run rate of around 8-9 runs an over and set Sri Lanka a stiff target. Alex Hales who was ruled out lbw for four to Amila Aponso would rue the decision for not calling for a referral.
Television replays showed the ball missing the leg stump by quite a distance. Although Lasith Malinga came back for his second spell to remove both Denly (20) and Ben Stokes (26) off successive balls of the 19th over England by then were well entrenched and heading towards a good score.
Sri Lanka capped 20-year-old ambidextrous all-rounder Kamindu Mendis with his first international cap. Although Mendis did not impress so much with the ball – his 3 overs costing 27 runs, he somewhat contributed a useful 24 off 14 balls.
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