England Strike Back, Level Series

by Rohandevgan

England needed a good performance after being drubbed in the first ODI and their fielding and bowlers did just that. England struggled in the batting department after winning the toss and electing to bat. No one could capitalise their starts and were soon struggling at 142/6 before Owais Shah (82) and Swann (34) took them to a respectable 235/8 in 50 overs. Mahroof was the pick of the bolwers scalping 3 wickets for 30 runs in his 9 overs. Defending a smallish total isn't easy but the English bowlers were right on target from the word go. Wickets at regular intervals, saw the hosts struggle to reach 100 for 6 in 25 overs. All the bolwers gave nothing away and kept the line tight for the batsmen. Sidebottom returned impressive figures of 10-2-23-2. Swann too was very economical and picked up wickets. His figures read 10-3-27-2. England had a slight problem picking up the last wicket and the pair added 43 runs in 10 overs with Mubarak unbeaten on 44. Sri Lanka were all out for 169 giving the English a victory by 66 runs.