It was a great evening for Sri Lanka as they kept their 100% Oval record intact and made history in doing so as well. It was a packed stadium on a busy Monday. But the crowd did not disappoint as well as Sri Lanka.
The tourist’s script a historic win albeit it came when the series was already sealed by the home side but nothing to take away from the mammoth effort to beat the unbeaten English team at home, this summer.
After the bowlers did their job aptly, it was Pathum Nissanka who stood tall and didn’t let the bowler’s effort go in vain. In the last two Test games Sri Lanka bowlers did pretty much a great job but it was their batting unit who collapsed but this time, they made sure to stand in right there and showed some defiance against the English bowlers.
Nissanka led from the front as he racked up an unbeaten century of 127 runs. He faced 124 balls and hit 13 boundaries and 2 sixes in his stylish knock, he was pretty much bazballing there.
The opening batsman also scored a gritty knock of 64 runs in the 1st innings helping his side to get off to a great start when his opening partner and former captain Karunaratne fell cheaply. Then it was a vigorous effort from the new skipper Silva and Kamindu Mendis as they etched a brillant partnership scoring 69 and 64 runs, respectively.
Talking about the second innings, besides Nissanka it was Mathews who remained unbeaten at an individual score of 32. Well, on one side Nissanka has finally found his feet in Lanka’s top-order and on the other Mathews would have been revealed to see his side’s future in the safest hands!
Talking about the bowlers, they were equally amazing in fact they had been amazing during this whole test series. After England racked up 325 in the first innings, no one would ever think the Lankas bowler would do the unthinkable, but they did.
All thanks to Lahiru Kumara who took 4 wickets in the second innings including the prize scalped of the 1st innings centurion and stand-in skipper, Ollie Pope. Vishwa Ferando and Asitha Fernando took three and two wickets, respectively.
After this historic win, England moved to sixth place whereas Sri Lanka is now standing at fifth place. If anything, this loss will lessen the chances of England of playing the final at Lords whereas it will affect the tourist side as they are out of the competition already.
England will now travel to Pakistan in October to play a three-match Test series at Multan and Rawalpindi Stadium. The series will begin from 7th of October and will culminate on 28th. Earlier there was speculation the series will shift to UAE but now it’s confirmed that Pakistan will be hosting the series. Whereas Sri Lanka will lose to New Zealand for the two-match Test series. Currently the Kiwi side is in India to play a one-off Test against Afghanistan.
