Following his side’s loss to Sri Lanka in the third Test, England batter Joe Root, named as the Player of the Summer following the series win, said on Monday that the last few years of his career have been the most enjoyable of his career and expressed hope that his team continues to evolve the way it is doing right now.
A fine century by Pathum Nissanka and an inspired effort by Sri Lankan bowlers in the second innings helped Sri Lanka secure an eight-wicket win against England in the third Test at The Oval on Monday. With this win, the three-match series ends in favour of England with a scoreline of 2-1. This is also Sri Lanka’s fourth win at England and their first in the country in 10 years. This is also the highest successful run chase by an Asian country in England, outdoing Pakistan’s chase of 180 runs against Australia in 2010.
Speaking after the game on being given the ‘Player of the Series’ and ‘Player of the Summer’ honour, Root said that the side has played some fine cricket in the Test summer at home against West Indies and Sri Lanka and it feels nice to have contributed to both series wins. He was also appreciative of new faces like Jamie Smith, Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone and Josh Hull for their fine performances throughout the summer.
“It is what you pride yourself on as a senior player and as a batter. Great to see this team constantly finding new ways to look at the game and keep evolving and keep getting better. To see some new faces come in and put their best foot forward shows the depth that we’ve got within this format in English cricket. I feel good, you know how fickle this game is, you have to keep working. Try and work as hard as I can to get better. I love playing in this team, great lads, play some really exciting cricket. Turn up every day wanting to get stuck in because of the way we go about it. The last few years have been the most enjoyable of my career and long may that continue. May the success of this team continue as well. I think we came up against different conditions in this game. As a team, we try to keep finding ways to put pressure on the opposition but unfortunately for us, it didn’t come off this game. We still stuck to our methods, there will be times when we get challenged and we need to find ways to get back into the game. It is an opportunity for us to learn and keep getting better,” said Root.
This Test summer has been a fine one for Root. In six games across series against WI and SL, Root scored 666 runs in 10 innings at an average of 74.00, with three centuries and three fifties. His best score is 143. He also went past England great Alastair Cook’s record of 33 Test centuries to become the country’s most successful batter in terms of centuries.
Despite a double failure in the final Test, Root ended the Lanka series as the top-run-getter, with 375 runs in six innings at an average of 75.00, with two centuries and one fifty. His best score is 143.
In the ongoing World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle, Root is the leading run-getter with 1,398 runs at an average of 53.76, with five centuries and six fifties in 29 innings. His best score is 143.
Coming to the third match, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to field first. England was bowled out for 325 runs in the first innings, with contributions from Ollie Pope (154 in 156 balls, with 19 fours and two sixes) and Ben Duckett (86 in 79 balls, with nine fours and two sixes) taking England to a solid score.
Key highlights of the innings were a 95-run partnership for the second wicket between Duckett and Pope and latters’ half-century stands with Joe Root (13) and Harry Brook (19), in which Pope did the majority of the scoring.
Milan Rathnayake (3/56) was a top bowler for SL. Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and Dhananjaya de Silva got two wickets each.
In the first innings, Lankan Lions lost wickets at regular intervals. SL was reeling at 93/5 at one point, but a fine 127-run partnership between Dhananjaya de Silva, the skipper (69 in 111 balls, with 11 fours) and Kamindu Mendis (64 in 91 balls, with seven fours) took SL to 263, trailing by 62 runs. Pathum Nissanka had contributed 64 in 51 balls, with nine fours at the top, but did not get support from his batting partners.
Olly Stone (3/35) and Josh Hull (3/53) were the top bowlers for England. Chris Woakes got two scalps and Shoaib Bashir got one wicket.
In the England’s second innings, Lankan bowlers asserted their dominance. Other than a half-century by Jamie Smith (67 in 50 balls, with 10 fours and a six), nothing really stood out. England was reduced to 82/7 at one point, but then Jamie launched a counter-attack with some solid support from Stone (10), in which wicketkeeper-batter displayed his free-flowing strokeplay and immense game awareness while batting with the tail.
England was bowled out for 156 runs, and England set 219 runs to win for Sri Lanka.
Lahiru (4/21) was the top bowler for SL, while Vishwa (3/40) got key wickets of Root, Brook and Jamie. Asitha Fernando took 2/49 in 12 overs while Milan got one wicket.
Sri Lanka lost Dimuth Karunaratne early during the run-chase. But Pathum Nissanka stitched a 69-run partnership with Kusal Mendis (39 in 37 balls, with seven fours) to bring the team back on track. Nissanka went on to score his second Test ton, making 127* in 124 balls, with 13 fours and two sixes. All-rounder Angelo Mathews was also unbeaten at 32 in 61 balls, with three fours.
Brief Scores: England: 325 and 156 (Jamie Smith 67, Dan Lawrence 35, Lahiru Kumara 4/21) lose to Sri Lanka: 263 and 219/2 (Pathum Nissanka 127*, Kusal Mendis 39, Gus Atkinson 1/44).
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