England v Sri Lanka, 3rd ODI: Three Things We Learned

Rain ruined a nicely poised match at Bristol. With that in mind, here is a DLS adjusted five things we learned…

MAN OF THE DAY – CHRIS WOAKES (3-34)

Steadily, Woakes is making this his breakthrough summer. The injury of Ben Stokes has helped, without doubt, as he came into the Test side and worked at bringing down an unflattering average. While both would have played together in the ODIs, the confidence gained in the longer form has been taken into this series. You’ll already know that his pace his up, but the way he carries himself now – chest puffed out and always wanting the ball – says that he feels he belongs at this level. Both Chandimal and Maharoof were done for pace as they tried to heave into the leg side, before Tharanga, who mad an enterprising 40, was undone by some extra nip off the pitch. With James Anderson battling for fitness ahead of the Pakistan tour, there’s every chance he may be on new ball duties in Tests, too…

SAME OLD MISTAKES

The key to making mistakes is learning from them. Someone should let Sri Lanka know. While they improved in the Test series, showing greater application and, thus, seeing out a draw at Lord’s (albeit with the help of the weather). Kusal Mendis, having helped rebuild from 32-2, hooked loosely to bring about his demise. Then Dinesh Chandimal, well set with Angelo Mathews, heaved and mistimed across the line to midwicket. Mathews followed after him, with a loose hack that went high rather than far. While they were all within their rights to take on the shots and look to push the score on, the selection of the balls to play left a lot to be desired. Mendis can be excused given his inexperience, but Chandimal and Mathews know the value on their wickets are higher than others and should have been smarter. Only four Sri Lanka batsmen made it into double figures.

FROM BEST TO SECOND WORST

What a difference two days make. On Friday, Alex Hales and Jason Roy were treating Sri Lanka’s bowlers with disdain. In the process, their 256 was the highest partnership for any English ODI wicket. Today, after a long innings break brought about by the rains, Hales nicked Suranga Lakmal to the keeper with just one scored – the joint-second worst opening partnership against Sri Lanka. It’s a funny old game…