England eased past hapless Sri Lanka to seal the opening ODI by five wickets - chasing down 185 in 34.5 overs - in Durham to bag a 1-0 lead. Chris Woakes, playing his first ODI since September 2020, ended with figures of 10-5-18-4 as Sri Lanka collapsed to suffer their fourth defeat on the tour.
SRI LANKA'S TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2021
Bowlers deliver another easy win for England
Woakes finished with figures of 10-5-18-4 . © AFP
Sri Lanka walked into the contest with three debutants. With apparent lack of ODI experience, they already had their one hand tied behind their back. In the eleven, apart from the debutants, the side had one player with an experience of one ODI, one had featured in six and only three have played more than 20. Kusal Perera was the only player with an ODI century. To put things in perspective, Eoin Morgan with his 244 ODIs had played more matches than the whole of the Sri Lankan eleven.
There had been plenty going on behind the scenes for Sri Lanka post the 0-3 loss in the T20I series. The blatant disregard for the safety bubble put in place by the boards by Kusal Mendis, Danushka Gunathilaka and Niroshan Dickwella meant Kusal Perera was
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