{"id":95347,"date":"2021-07-05T07:17:31","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T07:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=95347"},"modified":"2021-07-05T07:58:40","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T07:58:40","slug":"tom-curran-strikes-before-rain-ends-englands-bid-for-sri-lanka-sweep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=95347","title":{"rendered":"Tom Curran strikes before rain ends England\u2019s bid for Sri Lanka sweep"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bristol:\u00a0Tom Curran followed in brother Sam’s footsteps against Sri Lanka only for rain to deny England a series clean sweep in the third and final one-day international at Bristol on Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having won the preceding T20 series 3-0, England were on course to end the ODI campaign with a similar scoreline after dismissing Sri Lanka for a meagre 166, with Curran taking 4-35 in his maximum 10 overs.<\/p>\n

That followed younger brother Sam’s 5-48 during an eight-wicket win at the Oval — the duo’s Surrey home ground — on Thursday that put England 2-0 up.<\/p>\n

But a huge downpour after Sri Lanka’s innings meant the match was abandoned before reigning 50-over world champions England could begin their reply.<\/p>\n

The series win extended England’s lead at the top of the\u00a0Super League, which acts as qualification for the 2023 World Cup in India.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Sri Lanka remained in 11th place and they may yet have to go through a separate qualifying event in order to secure a place at the showpiece tournament.<\/p>\n

‘Ruthless’<\/strong><\/h3>\n

“We’re delighted that even though we went 2-0 up in the series, they continued to be ruthless and disciplined,” England captain Eoin Morgan told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

Tom Curran’s wickets represented the right-arm paceman’s first for England in six white-ball appearances. He had previously bowled 34 overs in T20s and ODIs without success.<\/p>\n

Only Dasun Shanaka’s 48 not out offered much resistance, with England set for a tougher test against Pakistan in a three-match ODI series starting in Cardiff on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka never appeared to recover from the loss of three senior players — vice-captain Kusal Mendis, opener Danushka Gunathilaka and wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella — after they were all sent home for a breach of Covid regulations before the T20 series.<\/p>\n

“Our batsmen have not been in the game,” said Sri Lanka captain Kusal Perera. “They have to trust their ability and go back to basics.”<\/p>\n

It was an all-too familiar story for Sri Lanka on Sunday as they collapsed to 63-5 inside 15 overs, with Chris Woakes and David Willey making early inroads after Morgan won the toss.<\/p>\n

Willey, denied a place in England’s victorious 2019 World Cup squad by the currently injured Jofra Archer, was named player of the series after taking nine wickets at a miserly average of 16.<\/p>\n

“It’s great to be back involved, I think the bowlers as a collective have been great,” said Willey. “Typically I swing the new ball but I bowled a bit shorter the last game and picked up some wickets with that.”<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka’s batsmen repeatedly fell to the short ball against all of England’s quicks, with both Dhananja de Silva, who made a fine 91 at the Oval, and Wanindu Hasaranga caught in the deep off Woakes and Tom Curran.<\/p>\n

Hasaranga’s exit left Sri Lanka in dire straits at 87-6 and when a farcical runout led to the loss of their last wicket there were still nearly nine overs left in the innings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bristol:\u00a0Tom Curran followed in brother Sam’s footsteps against Sri Lanka only for rain to deny England a series clean sweep in the third and final […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95349,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95347\/revisions\/95349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}