Birmingham : Blistering hundreds by Jason Roy and Alex Hales hauled England to a crushing 10-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the second One-day International at Edgbaston.
England, set a modest 255 for victory, finished on 256 without loss as they won with more than 15 overs to spare to go 1-0 up in the five-match series following Tuesday’s tied opener at Trent Bridge.
Roy, named man-of-the-match after also completing two run-outs, was 112 unbeaten at the finish and Hales 133 not out, both batsmen recording their highest scores at this level.
Their unbroken stand surpassed England’s record ODI partnership of 250 set by Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott for the second wicket against Bangladesh at Edgbaston in 2010.
England’s total was also the highest scored by any side winning an ODI by 10 wickets, topping the 236 scored by New Zealand against Zimbabwe at Harare last year.
Victory also saw England win the inaugural multi-format Super Series, with Sri Lanka now unable to surpass their 13-3 points lead in the remaining three ODIs and lone Twenty20.
Earlier, Adil Rashid took two quickfire wickets as England held Sri Lanka to 254 for seven after Mathews won the toss. Sri Lanka were struggling at 191 for seven in the 41st over. But an unbroken stand of 63 between Upul Tharanga (53 not out) and Suraj Randiv (26 not out) bolstered their total.
Dinesh Chandimal (52), restricted by a hamstring injury during his innings, and Mathews (44), shared a fourth-wicket stand of 82 in front of a capacity crowd of just over 23,000 at a sunny Edgbaston. Danushka Gunathilaka, dropped in the slips on five, drove two straight sixes in three balls off left-arm paceman David Willey.
But fast bowler Liam Plunkett, whose last-ball six secured Tuesday’s tie, struck with his third delivery when Gunathilaka (22) was caught behind. Rashid rocked Sri Lanka with two wickets for no runs in three balls. The hampered Chandimal compiled an 80-ball fifty but was run out in search of a non-existent single.
Sri Lanka:
Perera run out (Roy)………………….37
Gunathilaka c Buttler b Plunkett…22
Mendis lbw b Plunkett………………..0
Chandimal run out (Roy/Buttler)..52
Mathews c Plunkett b Rashid……..44
Prasanna c Willey b Rashid………….2
Tharanga not out……………………..53
Maharoof b Willey………………………2
Randiv not out…………………………26
Extras: (B-1, LB-13, W-2)…………16
Total: (For 7 wkts; 50 overs)……254
Bowling: Willey 10-0-65-1, Woakes 8-0-36-0, Plunkett 10-0-49-2, Ali 9-0-41-0, Rashid 10-0-34-2, Root 3-0-15-0.
England:
Roy not out……………………………112
Hales not out…………………………133
Extras: (LB-3, W-8)………………….11
Total: (For no loss; 34.1 overs)…256
Bowling: Maharoof 7-1-47-0, Lakmal 5-0-21-0, Randiv 8-0-62-0, Pradeep 4-0-31-0, Prasanna 8.1-0-78-0, Gunathilaka 2-0-14-0.
