Sri Lanka gives England taste of its own medicine in cricket

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Brendon McCullum transformed England’s Test squad into an attacking unit that had the other nations sit up and take note.

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But playing Bazball, as England’s aggressive brand has been dubbed, doesn’t always work.

On the weekend, England should have completed a 3-0 sweep of Sri Lanka at The Oval and secure its first summer clean sweep since 2004. But the visitors gave England a taste of its own Bazball medicine with a thumping eight-wicket victory.

Sri Lanka got two classy knocks from opening batsman Pathum Nissanka to secure the easy victory. Starting the fourth day on 94 for one and needing 125 more runs for a win, the Sri Lankans took barely two hours to complete the job in clinical style.

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As one would expect the local fans, former England Test captains and newspaper columnists were stunned at the way England succumbed to the visitors.

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Former England Test captain Michael Vaughan accused the players of being “cocky” and Michael Cook added they looked too complacent. Cook also took a swipe at star batsman Harry Brook for failing to put up big numbers in the series and noted England was prone to collapsing due to its excessive attacking intent.

This bears bad news for McCullum and his squad as it prepares to take on the mighty Australians in the Ashes series next year. Even skipper Ollie Pope, standing in for the injured captain Ben Stokes, admitted the team “shot ourselves in the foot.”

From 261 for three in the first innings, the home team was all back in the pavilion for 325. In the second innings, the vaunted attack was snuffed out for a meagre 156 in only 34 overs.

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It was England’s worst defeat under McCullum as Nissanka blasted his way to a magnificent unbeaten 127. And, in England’s first knock, Pope led the way with 154 and Ben Duckett made 86.

Sri Lanka replied with 263 (Nissanka 69, Dhananjaya de Silva 69, Kamindu Mendis 64, Ollie Stone three for 35) and 219 for two. Only wicket-keeper Jamie Smith showed any fight in the second innings by slamming 67.

But the rest of the lineup had no answer to Sri Lanka’s pace attack of Lahiru Kumara, who snapped four wickets for 21, and Vishwa Fernando, who grabbed three for 40.

Only England batsman Joe Root came out of this series with his reputation intact as he totalled 375 runs with two centuries and, in the process, became the country’s leading century-maker with 34.

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England’s next Test series is against Pakistan in October and the good news for the country is that Stokes will be back from injury for the three-match series.

Dan Lawrence, who failed with the bat versus Sri Lanka, has been dropped England, which has included the uncapped pair of Jordan Cox and Brydon Carse in a 17-man squad for the trip. Also returning to the squad will be opener Zak Crawley who has been nursing a broken finger.

Carse, who is being groomed as an international pace bowler with the Ashes in mind, will get his first crack at the Australians in a Twenty20 match at Southampton on Wednesday.

The Aussies, fresh from a 3-0 whitewash of Scotland, meet England in three Twenty20 matches and five one-day internationals.

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Watching England closely in this clash will be McCullum, whose workload has just been increased as the 42-year-old was named coach of all three formats. He succeeds Matthew Mott, but won’t assume the leadership until the first day of the new year. Marcus Trescothick will fill in until then.

One other note of significance as far as England is concerned is that all-rounder Moeen Ali has thrown in the towel after 10 years as an international. Ali represented the country 300 times in all three formats, taking 204 Test wickets and amassing more than 3,000 runs. He also took 162 white-ball wickets and over 3,500 runs.

CANADA IN ACTION

Canada’s busy 2024 continues next week as it hosts Nepal and Oman in the Cricket World Cup League 2 competition at King City.

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Canada’s hot streak ended in the Netherlands two weeks ago when it won just once and lost five matches versus the Netherlands and the United States in the World Cup 2 competition.

Nepal and Oman have made tremendous strides in the past couple of years and Oman will have Canada’s former national coach Pubudu Dassanayake as its assistant coach. Canada fired Dassanayake without any reason following the completion of the World Twenty20 Cup a couple of months ago.

Dassanayake has sued Cricket Canada for wrongful dismissal and his lawyers are waiting to hear from the national body.

WOMEN’S LEAGUE A HIT

The World T10 Women’s series played in Mississauga on the weekend was a roaring success. Six teams, including the cream of Trinidad, Montreal and Alberta and four local clubs, took part in the competition. The tournament also included seven players from Afghanistan who left the country just prior to the Taliban assuming power. The highlight of the three-day event was a blistering knock of 86 by Divya Saxena who made 86 for Mississauga versus Trinidad Divas.

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