Dhananjaya de Silva came up with a vital 91 to drag Sri Lanka to 241/9 in the second ODI at the Oval on Thursday (July 1). At one stage, it appeared as if the visitors would struggle to even touch three figures after Sam Curran struck thrice with the new ball in front of his home crowd to leave Sri Lanka reeling at 21/4. Eventually, the youngster went on to collect his first five-fer in ODI cricket with Sri Lanka also making a commendable comeback, which is still unlikely to prevent them from going 2-0 down in the series.

The Sri Lankans were rocked very early in the game after England opted to field first as Sam trapped Kusal Perera leg-before-wicket. Losing the captain, who top-scored in the first ODI, for a duck was a massive blow and the seamer hardly gave them any breathing space by striking again after two balls. Avishka Fernando fell prey to a sharp inswinger and was dismissed lbw as well. To make matters worse, both Kusal and Avishka ended up wasting two reviews while getting dismissed. Another inswinger from the left-armer accounted for Pathum Nissanka’s wicket in just the fourth over and David Willey opened his account shortly as well with Charith Asalanka mistiming a pull in tame fashion.

At 21/4, the visitors were badly in need of a partnership with a familiar story unfolding. Dhananjaya then found an able partner in Wanindu Hasaranga as the duo began rebuilding. Dhananjaya, who has been looking to cement his spot in the ODI XI, did his chances no harm as he kept picking up boundaries to get the scorecard moving. He played some exquisite shots off the seamers punishing anything that was bowled full and short as well. Hasaranga, who was watchful at the other end with Dhananjaya doing the bulk of the scoring, finally found his groove as he picked up a couple of boundaries off Sam to bring up the half-century stand.

The left-arm seamer persisted with a short-ball ploy against Hasaranga despite getting pulled for a boundary once but his patience did yield in a wicket eventually. Against the run of play, Hasaranga took on the short ball only to find the fielder at deep midwicket. It was then Dasun Shanaka’s turn to aid Dhananjaya as the two batsmen began guiding Sri Lanka to safety. Shanaka had to curb his natural instincts with plenty of overs left in the innings but did chip in with timely boundaries. Dhananjaya on the other hand continued to look fluent, went past his highest ODI score, and was on course to getting to his maiden hundred before a lapse in concentration resulted in his downfall.

Just nine short of three figures, the right-hander pulled Willey but failed to connect it to perfection and was caught by Joe Root near deep square leg. With Shanaka also getting dismissed before he could open up, Sri Lanka had to settle for a par score of 241 but they have certainly given their bowlers something to fight for which looked unlikely after the first 20 minutes of play.

Brief scores:

Sri Lanka

241/9 in 50 overs (Dhananjaya de Silva 91, Dasun Shanaka 47; Sam Curran 5-48, David Willey 4-64 )