First Ever Series Win in Sri Lanka for England.
11th October, 2007
England’s cricket team picked up their first one-day series win on the sub-continent in 20 years, with an impressive five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in Colombo. The team picked themselves up from being 1-0 down after the first test, to record 3 straight victories in the process giving themselves an unassailable 3-1 lead. Skipper Paul Collingwood said of his team: “It was a very big moment when we knocked off the winning runs. I'm very, very proud of every player involved. We've been up against it and it's been a massive challenge.”
After a disappointing series so far, Alastair Cook top scored with 80, and Kevin Pietersen finished unbeaten on 63. Most of the praise went to the English bowlers, who restricted Sri Lanka, who won the toss and choose to bat, to just 211-9 after 50 overs. Sri Lanka were struggling from early on in the innings, finding themselves at 20-3 at one stage. Kumar Sangakkara and Chamara Silva rescued the innings with a stand of 126 to put Sri Lanka back in contention. Anderson and Sidebottom got three wickets each, Broad claimed two, and Collingwood got one.
England’s innings got off to fast start, with Mustard claiming a quick four boundaries to race to 19 runs. Bell made a start on 25, but Cook and Pietersen set up the innings nicely with a 110 run partnership. Bopara and Pietersen finished off the innings with 4.1 overs and five wickets remaining.
Despite the convincing win for England, Sri Lanka remain favourites to take the final test. England are 5/4, while Sri Lanka are 4/7 to take the final test at Ladbrokes.
