England captain Eoin Morgan praised Chris Woakes, Jos Buttler and Liam Plunkett for getting his side “out of a hole” as the first one-day international against Sri Lanka ended in a thrilling tie.
Set 287 to win, England collapsed to 30-4 and 82-6 in Nottingham on Tuesday.
However, a stand of 138 between Buttler (93) and man-of-the-match Woakes, who made 95 not out — the highest ODI score by any No. 8 batsman — revived the innings.
Photo: Reuters
England’s hopes of victory disappeared in the final over, needing 14 to win in front of a capacity crowd at a floodlit Trent Bridge.
However, with six required to tie off the last ball, tailender Plunkett drove Nuwan Pradeep over long-off to seal the tie, in what was a stunning start to the five-match series.
This was Plunkett’s first match at this level since September last year, but the fast bowler said he was confident that his reputation as a big hitter in county cricket would be maintained on the international stage.
Photo: AP
“I was telling myself I have been hitting it well for Yorkshire: Stay still and hope I get enough on it to get it out of the ground,” Plunkett said. “You know when you have nailed the ball; it’s like on a golf course off the tee, a similar feeling.”
“You can always win the game from any situation, and today proved that a little bit,” Morgan said, despite the result.
“Getting out of the game with a tie is a big result,” the former Ireland batsman said. “Towards the end, it was in Sri Lanka’s favor, there weren’t a lot of boundaries being hit, and they bowled well.”
At one stage, it looked as if Morgan’s men, playing their first ODI of the English season, were in danger of a record defeat.
“The general performance was poor — bat, ball, field, was really rusty,” Morgan said. “Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett have got us out of a hole at the end.”
“We’ve got confidence with the guys coming in anywhere down past seven and eight, but we don’t want to leave them too much to do,” he said.
Woakes might not even have played had injured fellow England all-rounder Ben Stokes been fit.
He responded to England’s slump with a career-best score, having earlier taken two wickets with some lively pace bowling.
“It was outstanding — a lot of Woakes’ story is that he is competing with Ben Stokes and the two of them are incredible cricketers,” Morgan said.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews led from the front by top-scoring with 73 in his side’s 286-9 and then taking two early wickets with his medium-pace bowling.
At the finish he was off the field with a hamstring injury and it was perhaps no surprise that Sri Lanka’s ground fielding, a problem during the 2-0 Test series defeat, became increasingly ragged in his absence.
Nevertheless, Mathews was not alone in believing that Sri Lanka had the match won.
“I thought we had the game in the bag for most of the overs,” he said.
“Unfortunately the yorker fell just off line and went for a six,” said the all-rounder, who was yet to discover whether his injury would rule him out of the second ODI across the Midlands at Birmingham’s Edgbaston tomorrow. “For Pradeep, it happens. Unfortunately for bowlers, it happens.”
“We batted and bowled pretty well,” Mathews said. “We were poor in the field. We can improve in all three departments, but especially in fielding.”
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