Jade Dernbach held his nerve as England beat Sri Lanka by 16 runs in the fifth One-Day International (ODI) at Old Trafford to seal a 3-2 series win over the World Cup finalists.
Sri Lanka, chasing 269 for victory, finished on 252 all out with 10 balls of their innings left.
Dernbach dismissed dangerman Angelo Mathews for a near run-a-ball 62 with a clever slower ball, which the all-rounder sliced to Tim Bresnan at backward point.
He then sealed the result in his team’s favour by dismissing Lasith Malinga to finish with two for 49.
The tourists were in trouble at 131 for five, needing 138 more runs to win, when Mathews and Jeevan Mendis came together with 20 overs left.
But their sixth-wicket partnership of 102 troubled England until Mendis holed out to the left-arm spin of Samit Patel.
New batsman Nuwan Kulasekara then hit James Anderson, bowling on his Lancashire home ground, to Eoin Morgan at deep midwicket before Suraj Randiv was run out in a dreadful mix-up.
Malinga struck Anderson for a huge six to get the target down to 17 off 12 balls.
But Dernbach’s double strike gave England captain Alastair Cook a win in his first series in permanent charge of the ODI side and a measure of revenge after a 10-wicket World Cup quarter-final defeat by the islanders.
Trott impresses
That England made 268 for nine was largely down to a fourth-wicket stand of 118 between man-of-the-match Jonathan Trott (72) and Eoin Morgan (57).
They seemed set for a huge total when Cook, named man-of-the-series for his 298 runs in five ODIs, put on 85 in quick time with Craig Kieswetter after winning the toss to follow the pair’s unbroken stand of 171 in a crushing 10-wicket win at Trent Bridge on Wednesday.
Cook, who had made 119 and 95 not out in his previous two innings, was deceived on 31 by a sharply turning ball from Randiv and stumped by Sangakkara.
The opener was the first of a five wickets for off-spinner Randiv, who finished with a career-best five for 42, surpassing his previous best return of three for 23 against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo last year.
Trott though completed his patient fifty before an unlucky dismissal saw a pull off Randiv get caught up in his body and trickle onto the stumps before he could kick the ball away.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2011.
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