Image Courtesy- The Independent
On Thursday, England won the second T20 of the three T20 International series being played between England and Sri Lanka. In a rain-affected match played for the second day in a row, the English team won by 5 wickets against the visiting Sri Lankan team (according to the Duckworth Lewis rule). English player Liam Livingstone of Rajasthan Royals, who left IPL 2021 and returned home, became the player of the match. England has won this three-match series by 2-0. The third T20 will be played on Saturday, June 26.
Match won ✅ Series secured ✅
Scorecard/clips: https://t.co/pLmR4SdvUJ
🏴 #ENGvSL 🇱🇰 pic.twitter.com/nYQidBKsMV
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 24, 2021
In the second match of this T20 series being played in Cardiff, the Sri Lankan team won the toss and decided to bat first. But his decision did not seem to be proved right from anywhere. Sam Curran showed the way to the pavilion for both the Sri Lankan openers within the score of 18 runs. First Danushka Gunathilaka was run out on the brilliant fielding of Sam Curran after scoring 3 runs. While Avishka Fernando scored 6 runs and was caught by Livingstone.
After this, Kusal Perera (21 runs) and Kusal Mendis (39 runs) tried to handle the innings for some time but both these players were also dismissed in two successive overs. In the 13th over of the innings, Adil Rashid got Kusal Perera caught by Morgan. Whereas in the next over, Mark Wood got Kusal Mendis caught by wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.
After this, except Isuru Udana’s unbeaten 19 not out in the last, no Sri Lankan player showed the strength and in 20 overs they could score only 111 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. During this, Mark Wood and Adil Rashid took 2-2 wickets for England while Sam Curran and Chris Jordan took 1-1 wickets.
Due to rain, the target was changed under the DL rule and England got the target of 103 runs in 18 overs. The host England team, who came out to answer, had a worse start than Sri Lanka. Opener Jonny Bairstow (0) was dismissed by Fernando on the total score of two runs, while, Dawid Malan who came to bat at three was dismissed at 4 runs. Jason Roy was dismissed for 17 and captain Eoin Morgan was dismissed for 11 by Udana.
On this difficult pitch, England had lost their 4 wickets within 36 runs and seemed to be struggling. But first Sam Billings played an innings of 24 while Liam Livingstone played an important inning of 29 not out in 26 balls and returned to the pavilion only after giving his team victory on the first ball of the 17th over. Sam Curran scored an unbeaten 16 off 8 balls. With which England won by 5 wickets and took an unassailable lead in this T20 series.