One of the happiest moments of my career...: SL skipper Dhananjaya after win over England
F
ollowing his side's win over England in the third Test, Sri Lankan skipper Dhananjaya de Silva termed the triumph "one of the happiest moments of his career."
A fine century by Pathum Nissanka and an inspired effort by Sri Lankan bowlers in the second innings helped Sri Lanka secure an eight-wicket win against England in the third Test at The Oval on Monday. With this win, the three-match series ends in favour of England with a scoreline of 2-1.
This is also Sri Lanka's fourth win in England and their first in the country in 10 years. This is also the most successful run chase (219) by an Asian country in England, outdoing Pakistan's chase of 180 runs against Australia in 2010.
Speaking after the game, Dhananjaya said in the post-match presentation, "For now there was no emotion in the team but it's one of the happiest moments in my career. We had a tough time in the last two weeks and to come back here and get a win against English conditions and the England team is great, taking the 20 wickets and that's what I have been talking to the boys and they were up to it."
Speaking on Nissanka, Dhananjaya hailed him as the "best batter in Sri Lanka".
"I wanted him (Nissanka) in the team, but only 11 can play and the moment he came in, he proved he is the best batsman in Sri Lanka right now. We have a fixed batting lineup in Tests and it is hard to get in a new batter and Kamindu (Mendis) was scoring runs in domestic so we had to get him in and here they are doing well. When we go back home, in the back of our minds, we got a win in England, so we can beat the others," he added.
Coming to the third match, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to field first. England was bowled out for 325 runs in the first inning, with contributions from Ollie Pope (154 in 156 balls, with 19 fours and two sixes) and Ben Duckett (86 in 79 balls, with nine fours and two sixes) taking England to a solid score.
Key highlights of the inning were a 95-run partnership for the second wicket between Duckett and Pope and the latter's half-century stands with Joe Root (13) and Harry Brook (19), in which Pope did the majority of the scoring.
Milan Rathnayake (3/56) was a top bowler for SL. Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and Dhananjaya de Silva got two wickets each.
In the first inning, Lankan Lions lost wickets at regular intervals. SL was reeling at 93/5 at one point, but a fine 127 run partnership between Dhananjaya de Silva, the skipper (69 in 111 balls, with 11 fours) and Kamindu Mendis (64 in 91 balls, with seven fours) took SL to 263, trailing by 62 runs. Pathum Nissanka had contributed 64 in 51 balls, with nine fours at the top, but did not get support from his batting partners.
Olly Stone (3/35) and Josh Hull (3/53) were the top bowlers for England. Chris Woakes got two scalps and Shoaib Bashir got one wicket.
In the England's second innings, Lankan bowlers asserted their dominance. Other than a half-century by Jamie Smith (67 in 50 balls, with 10 fours and a six), nothing really stood out. England was reduced to 82/7 at one point, but then Jamie launched a counter-attack with some solid support from Stone (10), in which wicketkeeper-batter displayed his free-flowing strokeplay and immense game awareness while batting with the tail.
England was bowled out for 156 runs, and England set 219 runs to win for Sri Lanka.
Lahiru (4/21) was the top bowler for SL, while Vishwa (3/40) got key wickets of Root, Brook and Jamie. Asitha Fernando took 2/49 in 12 overs while Milan got one wicket.
Sri Lanka lost Dimuth Karunaratne early during the run-chase. But Pathum Nissanka stitched a 69-run partnership with Kusal Mendis (39 in 37 balls, with seven fours) to bring the team back on track. Nissanka went on to score his second Test ton, making 127* in 124 balls, with 13 fours and two sixes. All-rounder Angelo Mathews was also unbeaten at 32 in 61 balls, with three fours.
Brief Scores: England: 325 and 156 (Jamie Smith 67, Dan Lawrence 35, Lahiru Kumara 4/21) lose to Sri Lanka: 263 and 219/2 (Pathum Nissanka 127*, Kusal Mendis 39, Gus Atkinson 1/44).
✔️ One of the happiest moments of my career...: SL skipper Dhananjaya after win over England
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