Filed under: Cricket, England Cricket, ODIs, Sri Lanka Cricket
Fifth ODI, Old Trafford: England 268-9 (Jonathan Trott 72, Eoin Morgan 57, Suraj Randiv 5-42). Sri Lanka 252 (Angelo Mathews 62, Dinesh Chandimal 54, Kumar Sangakkara 48, Tim Bresnan 3-49). England win by 16 runs.Alastair Cook claimed the first ODI series win of his captaincy in a nail-biting victory - despite the efforts of Angelo Mathews.
After four matches which had produced two one-side wins each for the two sides, a sell-out Old Trafford was treated to the best contest of the five-match series.
It was not until Mathews departed in the penultimate over - after a brilliant 62 from only 64 balls - could Cook feel victory was his as England held their nerve to claim a 3-2 series win, after winning the final two rubbers.
England v Sri Lanka Scorecard
And Cook will feel an immense sense of satisfaction that it was Jade Dernbach who put the final touches to England's win, after he was selected ahead of the dropped Stuart Broad.
Dernbach returned for the penultimate over with Sri Lanka needing 17 runs for victory and he removed Mathews and Lasith Malinga in successive balls to wrap up the game and ease England nerves.
Cook must have been fearing the worst as Mathews and Jeevan Mendis kept Sri Lanka in the game with the highest sixth wicket partnership against England of 102, as the tourists recovered from another poor start with the bat.
Once again they lost three wickets in the first ten overs with skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan failing again, to end with just 17 runs in the series.
Tim Bresnan picked up the top three in the order, including the crucial wicket of Kumar Sangakkara when it looked like the wicketkeeper batsman could take the game away from England.
In unison with Dinesh Chandimal, who compiled an aggressive single, before giving his wicket away to Graeme Swann, Sangakkara kept his side in the hunt before he dragged Bresnan on to his stumps two short of a half-century of his own.
At the half-way stage, England would have been satisfied with their total, despite looking at one stage as if they could have passed 300.
Craig Kieswetter and Cook maintained a blistering tempo in their 85-run opening stand, before three quick wickets in England's batting power play halted the progress.
Jonathan Trott underlined his value to the side, top-scoring with 72 and he added 118 for the fifth wicket with Eoin Morgan as England looked in total control.
But Suraj Randiv collected his first ever five-wicket haul to peg back the hosts for a second time as England lost six wickets for only 55 runs.
It was left to James Anderson and Dernbach to scramble England to what was still a more than respectable total, given the average score in the previous ten ODIs at Old Trafford was 210.
The 15-runs the last wicket pair added proved far more valuable than they could have imagined at the time.
REACTION:
Cook came into the series under pressure as batsman and captain and answered his critics:
"I don't know whether I have proved the critics wrong. It is nice to score runs, but I don't do it to prove people wrong, I do it for England."
On finishing Man of the Series for his 298 runs at an average of over 75:
"It is nice to get personal accolades, but it is about the team winning."
On whether this was the most pleasing of the three wins:
"It was great to respond like that and the way we handled the pressure, in the deciding game was pleasing.
On it being good to play a tight game:
"We don't want it to be close, but every game throws up different scenarios. The way we finished things off was pleasing."
On how close England are to being the ODI side he wants:
"A long way off. There is stuff we have talked about at the beginning of the series as a team and it is going to take time to improve and get to where we want to be, but this is a step in the right direction."
Man of the match Trott felt it was good to finally win a tight game on a sticky wicket:
"It was nice to come in and build on a great platform. That set us up well and I could have a look and go from there and I went well with Eoin Morgan, but we got a little stuck at the end."
On the 15-runs added by the last pair:
"We tried to just bat out the overs and we would have liked to have got 30 more runs, but that is the way it goes some times."
On the new start and new captain:
"I think the team can go places, of course. There is a lot of belief in that changing room. Sri Lanka gave us a good lesson in cricket in the World Cup and we have managed to beat them here on some wickets that were close to what you would get in Colombo and it is a feather in our cap."
Dilshan was disappointed his side could not win in their strongest form of the game:
"Of course I am disappointed, but we played good cricket, but we had some good performances from younger players and I am happy with that."
On whether he thought they could win the game when Mendis and Mathews were going well:
"I thought we could do it. We had a chance to win, they are young and it was a good sign for Sri Lanka cricket."
On whether his side panicked in the end, or were just chasing too many:
"If Mathews had stayed in it might have been a different story, but they bowled really well in the last few overs."
On the fact he knows his 17 runs in five innings in the series was a poor performance:
"Definitely. I am very disappointed with my personal contribution and I did not get runs. I hoped it would be different."
On the tour in general:
"We have to keep doing the good things we are doing. We have played quite well for the last two months and hopefully we can carry those on to our next series."
PLAY OF THE DAY: Questions have been asked over Dernbach's inclusion in the side, but he answered all of them by holding his nerve to dismiss Mathews with his slower ball and follow up with the wicket of Malinga with an in-swinging yorker.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: It had to be when the ball clattered into Malinga's stumps to give Cook that winning feeling in his first series as ODI skipper.
WHAT IT MEANS: England playing two spinners in a home ODI is almost unheard of. so that proves the surface was more suited to Sri Lanka, but the way they came out on top shows they are making progress. The real test lies ahead against India later this summer, but there is cause for optimism. Sri Lanka will go home, via Scotland and lick their wounds and look for another new coach after the departure of Stuart Law.
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