Sri Lanka made history in Derby on Wednesday evening, winning the final T20 by seven wickets with three overs to spare, to go 2-1 up and secure their first ever series win against England.
It is England’s first T20 series loss at home to any team other than Australia since 2010, and a remarkable one: Sri Lanka are ranked eighth in the world, well behind second-placed England, and until recently (according to the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations) were essentially an amateur side, with no professional national structures in place. England are currently without Nat Sciver-Brunt, Sophia Dunkley and Sophie Ecclestone, but the coach, Jon Lewis, defended his decision to field a young side and said the team had “learned a hell of a lot” from the experience.
“Taking out some of our more senior players comes with an element of risk,” he told the BBC. “But it’s 100% the right decision. We’re working towards a World Cup, and we need our young players to understand what they need to work on to get better.”
Four days after the debacle at Chelmsford, Sri Lanka’s spinners again embarrassed their opponents. Seven of the England wickets fell to spin – three of them to the captain, Chamari Athapaththu – as the hosts were bowled out for 116 in 19 overs.
Athapaththu then spent the Sri Lanka powerplay continuing her one-woman mission to destroy the England bowling lineup, flicking two sixes casually over backward square leg en route to 44 off 28 balls.
She eventually holed out to long-on in the seventh over, but while the Sri Lanka run-rate slowed up considerably and Sarah Glenn made two further indentations, Harshitha Samarawickrama helped her side safely over the line, comfortably sealing the deal with a boundary.
England had found themselves wading through a quagmire from the very first ball, after Danni Wyatt sent up the tamest of catches to cover, bagging herself a golden duck. Alice Capsey soon departed with metaphorical steam coming out of her ears, when Maia Bouchier changed her mind about a second run with her partner two-thirds of the way down the pitch.
Bouchier did her best to atone for the error, striking four of England’s seven boundaries in the opening six overs including two sweet drives down the ground, and finishing as top scorer; but when she sent the final ball of the powerplay down the throat of long-on, England were 41 for three.
A 29-run partnership between Heather Knight and Amy Jones for the fourth wicket was the best it got; but when Knight fell LBW trying to reverse sweep Kavisha Dilhari it sparked a collapse of three wickets for two runs in only 11 balls – a position from which England never recovered.
