Key events
Preamble
Afternoon everyone and welcome to something you don’t come across very often: a game that has little riding on it because England’s white-ball team have been playing too well. With their calculated hitting on Sunday, Tom Banton and Harry Brook won the match and spoiled the series.
Sri Lanka played much better in that second game, only to find that the weather was not on their side. If they had won, we’d be looking forward to a fascinating finale today. Instead the main question is whether England are ruthless enough to complete a whitewash or whether the Sri Lankans can give the scoreline the respectability their efforts deserve. There’s a World Cup starting on Saturday and both teams will want to go into it with a win in their sails.
As usual in this game of many layers, there are plenty of sub-plots to keep us interested. Can Banton, brought in as a replacemewnt for the injured Ben Duckett, make that No.4 spot his own? Can Pavan Rathnayeke, who has still faced only 233 balls in his international career, carry on playing like a prince? Can Sri Lanka’s other young guns find a way to cope with England’s elderly spinners, Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson? Can Jamie Overton and Sam Curran go for fewer than ten runs an over? Can Brook refrain from saying something silly? Will Brendon McCullum say anything at all?
You never can tell if a match will be exciting. But it’s unlikely to be as dull as the last day of the transfer window.
