Malan, Bairstow, Willey Hand Sri Lanka A Thrashing As England Sweep T20I Series 3-0

England completed a 3-0 clean sweep over Sri Lanka in the T20I series with a crushing 89-run victory at the Ageas Bowl. It was the fourth-largest victory margin in terms of runs England have achieved in the format.

Despite the loss of both regular openers to injury, England posted a century stand for the first wicket to grasp a firm hold on the match which they were never to relinquish. Dawid Malan was named Player of the Match for a fluent innings of 76 that belied the slow nature of the pitch. Jonny Bairstow made 51. Nobody in the rest of the match passed 20.

England lost their way a little towards the end of their innings. An excellent spell of death bowling from Dushmantha Chameera, a bright spot amid the rubble of a bitterly disappointing Sri Lanka performance, saw England lose five wickets for 19 runs between the 16th and 19th overs. Chameera finished with career-best figures of 4 for 17.

Chris Jordan, however, helped England plunder 17 from the final over of the innings to take them to a total that was always likely to prove beyond the reach of a side that had failed to reach 130 in either of the first two games in the series.

So it proved as England’s seamers, gaining a degree of lateral movement that is unusual with the white kookaburra ball, combined to bowl Sri Lanka out for just 91. It was the fourth lowest score Sri Lanka have made from a completed T20I innings.

Chris Woakes, Sam Curran and Jordan took 4 for 36 from their 12 overs combined, while David Willey picked up three wickets.

Summarized scores: England 180 for 6 (Malan 76, Bairstow 51, Chameera 4-17) beat Sri Lanka 91 (Binura 20, Willey 3-27, Curran 2-14) by 89 runs