In the first ODI of the series Sri Lanka have made 317/6. A bit of hammer for the England bowlers, although Bopara managed to bowl 4 overs for only 15 - good to see him back having been left out of England's last squad against India. Tredwell had a respectable 2/52 from a full 10 overs.
Sri Lanka posted 317-6, their highest home ODI score against England.
Moeen Ali's sublime maiden one-day international century could not prevent England losing the opening match with Sri Lanka by 25 runs in Colombo.
England's batting in today's match is woeful.
They are stuttering to complete all their overs. Present score 180-9 in the 41st over.
I just don't trust England's batting full stop.
Especially in limited overs cricket
.
If the England batsmen don't improve soon then there will be cries to bring back Kevin Pietersen
Two comprehensive defeats by England in this series (2 played, 2 nil down) mean they have lost 7 from their last 8 ODI's.
England have consistently struggled in ODI's ever since they reached the 1992 World Cup Final.
They need to set a better tempo from the get go with the bat and score more heavily in power play overs generally.
Ian Botham hits the nail on the head with his article on skysports website... drop cook, drop bell, Hales in, Stokes/Jordan in and show some fucking balls (ok last bit was me)
I'm in shock. England has won a ODI
in a rain reduced 35 over match
And the batting helped win it with great knocks by Buttler 55, Root 48* & Moeen Ali 58.
But Cooke could be punished for a slow over rate
I don't think England will have a world class one day team for a while. One day cricket is about having great batsmen at one day level we really are short of world class performers.