Sam Curran claimed his best figures before England captain
Eoin Morgan shined with the bat as World Champions
England cruised to a series-clinching win over
Sri Lanka in the second one-day international at the Oval on Thursday.
Chasing the target of 242, the hosts managed to complete their task with seven overs to spare. Morgan top-scored with scintillating 75 not out off 83 balls, including eight fours and a six. He was well supported by senior batter
Joe Root, who remained unbeaten on 68 from 87 deliveries with the help of five boundaries.
The pair of Morgan and Root added an unbeaten 140-run stand for the third wicket to take their side over the finish line. Apart from the experienced duo, the openers also did a tremendous job and dominated the proceedings.
Jason Roy, who was making a comeback in the side after a hamstring injury, gave his team a flying start by forming a 75-run partnership for the opening wicket with
Jonny Bairstow. Roy scored 60 runs off 52 balls, while Bairstow could only manage to hit 29 runs.
Earlier, Curran completely destroyed the Sri Lankan batting order, picking up his first-ever five-wicket haul in the 50-over format. Curran removed the top three batters,
Pathum Nissanka (5), Kusal Perera (0), and
Avishka Fernando (2), to reduce the visitors to 12/3. Then, the left-armer dismissed
Wanindu Hasaranga (26) and
Chamika Karunaratne (21) to complete his fifer in the game.
Dhananjaya de Silva and
Dasun Shanaka took their side out of hot waters and steadied the ship. The duo put together a vital partnership of 78 runs for the sixth wicket to help Sri Lanka reach a competitive total.
Dhananjaya missed out from scoring a remarkable hundred by only nine runs as
David Willey dismissed him in the 35th over. Willey didn’t just stop there as he sent back Shanaka too in the 45th over. Willey went on to take a 4-fer for 64 runs in his quota of 10 overs.
Here is how Twitter reacted:
An excellent ten overs from Sam Curran. He pitched it up and swung it to start and then banged it in short to finish. He ends up with five wickets in front of his home crowd. Nice
#ENGvSL — Rob Johnston (@RobJ_Cricket)
July 1, 2021
England win the 2nd ODI!
Eoin Morgan and Joe Root’s unbeaten 140 run partnership guiding the hosts to victory.
#ENGvSL |
https://t.co/jAzRp7prGo pic.twitter.com/3ht88WPuCt — ICC (@ICC)
July 1, 2021
Tom Curran had claimed his maiden ODI 5-wkt haul (5/35) v Aus at Perth on 28 Jan 2018.
He was then 22 years-322 days!
Today, younger sibling Sam Curran claimed his maiden 5-wkt haul (5/48)
#ENGvsSL at the Oval at 23 years-28 days!
They are the 4th & 5th youngest for England!
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman)
July 1, 2021
It's been all about control today. The England batsman have been in control throughout their innings, and yet scored at a much quicker rate than Sri Lanka. They executed their skills perfectly.
England false shots: 13.3% (RR: 5.62)
Sri Lanka false shots: 18.2% (RR: 4.82)
#ENGvSL — The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst)
July 1, 2021
How good is
@root66 at one day cricket! So good to watch!
#rooooot — Tammy Beaumont (@Tammy_Beaumont)
July 1, 2021
What's happened here is that Sam Curran and David Willey have bowled a team out with bouncers. True story.
— Rory Dollard (@thervd)
July 1, 2021
Sam Curran has taken more wickets today than what Tom Curran has managed in his last ten ODIs across the last two years.
#ENGvSL — Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks)
July 1, 2021
Joe Root vs Sri Lanka in 2021: 228, 1, 186, 11, 79*, 68*
— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1)
July 1, 2021
A dream start on his home ground for Sam Curran.
#ENGvSL pic.twitter.com/BdNgvbGpC7 — Wisden (@WisdenCricket)
July 1, 2021
Eoin Morgan is the first player with a 50+ score on the tenth anniversary of a 50+ score against the same team in ODIs.
1 Jul 2011 – 52(40) v SL at Leeds
1 Jul 2021 – 75*(83) v SL at The Oval
#ENGvSL — Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats)
July 2, 2021
I hope Sam Curran leaves CSK with 3-4 trophies at least.
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer)
July 1, 2021
For latest cricket news & updates, visit
CricketTimes.com.
