Sri Lanka made history in Derby on Wednesday night, winning the T20 final by seven wickets and three overs, leading 2-1 and claiming their first series win over England.
It is England’s first defeat in the T20 series at home against a team other than Australia and a remarkable defeat: Sri Lanka is in eighth place in the world, far behind second-placed England and until recently (according to the Federation of International Cricketers Associations) was essentially an amateur team without professional national structures. England are currently being robbed by Nat Sciver-Brunt, Sophia Dunkley and Sophie Ecclestone, but coach Jon Lewis defended his decision to field a young team, saying the team had “learned a lot” from this experience.
“Taking out some of our senior players carries a certain peril,” he told the BBC. “But it’s 100 percent the right decision. We are working towards a World Cup and we need our young players to understand what they need to work on to improve.”
Four days after the Chelmsford debacle, Sri Lankan spinners have again embarrassed their opponents. Seven of England’s wickets fell in rotation – three of them to captain Chamari Athapaththu – as the hosts were eliminated in 19 overs for 116.
Athapaththu then spent the power game in Sri Lanka continuing his one-woman mission to damage the English bowling formation, casually throwing two sixes on a square leg back on the way to 44 off 28 balls.
She finally managed to move up to seventh place in the long run, but when the race pace slowed down significantly in Sri Lanka and Sarah Glenn made two more indentations, Harshitha Samarawickrama helped her team safely cross the line and comfortably seal the deal with a border.
England were wading through a swamp from the first ball after Danni Wyatt sent the tamest of catches to cover himself and treat himself to a golden duck. Alice Capsey quickly walked out of her ears with metaphorical steam when Maia Bouchier changed her mind about a second descent with her partner two-thirds of the field.
Bouchier did her best to atone for the mistake, hitting four of England’s seven boundaries in the first six overs, including two nice groundstrokes, and became the top scorer; but when she sent the last ball of the PowerPlay down long-on’s throat, England was 41 for three.
A 29-run partnership in the middle of Heather Knight and Amy Jones for the fourth wicket was the best he got; but when Knight fell LBW while trying to reverse the kavisha Dilhari sweep, it triggered a collapse of three wickets for two runs in just 11 balls–a position England never recovered from.
