OTD | England won their first Test series in Sri Lanka in nearly 17 years in 2018

On this day in 2018, England claimed a series win against Sri Lanka in their backyard in Tests. It was the visiting side’s first Test series win in Sri Lanka in nearly 17 years. After winning the Pallekele Test to claim an unassailable lead of 2-0, England went a step further and won the Colombo Test, ensuring a famous whitewash of 3-0. 

The first Test of the series was played from the 6th of November to the 9th of November. England took just 4 days to claim a win in Galle. They batted first and posted 342 runs on the board. SL replied with 203, conceding a lead of 139 runs. England batted well and scored 322/6 before declaring their innings. The home side folded up for 250, as ENG clinched the first Test by 211 runs.

The second Test in Pallekele was rather closer than one would’ve expected. England batted first yet again and posted 290 runs. Jos Buttler and Sam Curran starred with their handy 63 and 64 respectively. In reply, SL batted well and posted 336 runs. Roshen Silva scored 85 while Dimuth Karunaratne and Dhananjaya De Silva managed to score 63 and 59 respectively.

England trailed by 46 runs heading into the second innings. But the visiting side did well to score 346 in their second innings. Rory Burns and Ben Foakes scored 59 and 65 respectively. But the batter of the match was Joe Root who scored a sublime 124(146) on a turning wicket. Sri Lanka had to chase 301, which wasn’t easy on a turner.

They indeed gave a good fight. Despite witnessing an early collapse of 26/3, the home side recovered, thanks to the partnership between Dimuth and Mathews. While the former scored 57, the latter scored 88. Roshen and Dickwella managed to score 37 and 35 respectively. Unfortunately, a lack of contribution from other batters meant SL lost by 57 runs. Root won the Player of the Match award for his amazing ton. 

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