England captain Alastair Cook’s unbeaten 95 completed his side’s crushing 10-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the fourth one-day international (ODI) at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, England, on Wednesday.
England’s win left the five-match series all square at 2-2 ahead of tomorrow’s Old Trafford finale.
England, chasing a revised target of 171 after rain reduced their innings by two overs, finished on 171 without loss with more than 24 overs to spare.
PHOTO: AFP
Craig Kieswetter was 72 not out.
Left-hander Cook’s innings followed the 26-year-old’s career-best 119 in a six-wicket defeat at Lord’s on Sunday.
Man-of-the-match Cook, not even in England’s squad at the World Cup this year on account of his supposedly slow one-day scoring rate, faced just 75 balls with 16 fours. Kieswetter, who struck three sixes and eight fours in 68 balls, helped Cook set a new England record partnership against Sri Lanka, surpassing the fourth-wicket stand of 154 shared by Graeme Hick and Neil Fairbrother at Adelaide, Australia, in 1998.
England’s victory — only their fourth 10-wicket ODI win — was all but assured after they dismissed Sri Lanka for just 174.
James Anderson took three wickets for 24 runs in eight overs before fellow seamer Jade Dernbach wrapped up the innings with three wickets in 10 balls. Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara made a gritty 75 before he was last out, but none of his teammates made more than Angelo Mathews’ 39.
England off-spinner Graeme Swann had issued a plea in the build-up to this match for a pitch that gave his side a “home advantage.”
“When we go to Sri Lanka, they don’t play on green seamers,” said Swann, who plays at Trent Bridge for Nottinghamshire.
However, that is just what confronted the teams on Wednesday after Cook won the toss and fielded.
“I honestly don’t think it [the ball] moved that much, although thank you to the groundsman for leaving grass on the pitch, which is what we asked for,” Cook told Sky Sports after the match. “Craig and I proved it was a very good wicket, but home advantage is there in all sports, and you can use it.”
Asked if he’d batted better in a one-day match, Cook replied: “Probably not, I don’t always time the ball as nicely as that.”
The first over of the match saw Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan caught behind off a good-length Anderson delivery for nought, and from then on the tourists were struggling.
“We lost so many wickets in the first few overs,” Dilshan said. “If we get runs on the board, we can win the next match and the series. England bowled really well in the conditions today, especially Anderson.”
Mahela Jayawardene made 144 and 79 in World Cup finalists Sri Lanka’s 69-run and six-wicket wins at Headingley and Lord’s respectively.
However, on Wednesday he managed just nine before he edged an away-swinger from Tim Bresnan to first slip Jonathan Trott.
Dinesah Chandimal then went from the heights of 105 not out at Lord’s to the low of a duck when LBW to an Anderson inswinger.
All-rounder Mathews hit back by driving Dernbach and Broad for sixes.
However, his enterprising innings finished when he was caught and bowled by Bresnan, diving forward in his follow-through.
Sangakkara, though, guided Bresnan to the third man boundary — the left-hander’s fifth four — to complete a grafting 80-ball fifty.
However, he eventually miscued Dernbach to point.
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