Sri Lanka v England: third men’s cricket one-day international – live

January 27, 2026
5:37 pm

Key events

8th over: England 21-1 (Rehan 11, Root 2) Spin from both ends with the left-armer Wellallage coming on. Just one from the over. This is a very 1990s start.

7th over: England 20-1 (Rehan 11, Root 1) Some fresh-faced genius has walked out to bat.

WICKET! England 19-1 (Duckett c Wellalage b Dhananjaya 6)

The first wicket falls to the fifth ball of spin. Duckett plinks a reverse sweep straight to cover off Dhananjaya and is on his way for six.

6th over: England 17-0 (Rehan 10, Duckett 6) Six dot balls in a row from Liyanage to Rehan. I thought England might go after the seamers, given how spin-dominated this series has been, but Fernando and Liyanage have bowled well.

5th over: England 17-0 (Rehan 10, Duckett 6) Duckett slashes Fernando behind square for two; it would have been four but for a good sprawling stop. All very quiet at the moment.

4th over: England 14-0 (Rehan 9, Duckett 4) Rehan takes a quick single to mid-on, one of three in another low-key over.

3rd over: England 11-0 (Rehan 7, Duckett 3) That Rehan boundary, it’s been a low-key start to the innings. No clues yet on the pitch – we’ll get that when the spinners come on.

2nd over: England 8-0 (Rehan 5, Duckett 3) A quiet first over from Liyanage, the highlight of which is a slash by Duckett that is well stopped on the boundary.

England’s Ben Duckett plays a shot. Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

1st over: England 4-0 (Rehan 4, Duckett 0) Notorious D. I. G. – David Ivon Gower – is on commentary and the game is under way. After hitting the field with a couple of shots off Asitha Fernando, Rehan Ahmed times a beautiful push through the covers for four. This ain’t no nighthawk.

Taha Hashim

Liam Dawson has been around for England’s finest white-ball moments in the past decade. He was an uncapped inclusion in the 2016 World T20 touring party, when Eoin Morgan’s fresh-faced team were denied right at the end by Carlos Brathwaite’s “remember the name” sixes. He was there as a squad member on that golden day at Lord’s in 2019 and a travelling reserve when England won the T20 World Cup in Australia three years later.

But, remarkably, the 35-year-old is still waiting to make his debut at a global tournament. It has been an international career spent on call, limited to 33 appearances in all formats, his left-arm spin and handy batting there to use in case of emergency.