{"id":897970,"date":"2026-09-19T17:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T17:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897970\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T17:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T17:18:13","slug":"jos-buttler-blasts-england-to-world-no-1-spot-in-t20s-with-sri-lanka-whitewash-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897970\/","title":{"rendered":"Jos Buttler blasts England to world No 1 spot in T20s with Sri Lanka whitewash | Cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

And with a one-handed six from Jos Buttler<\/a>, that was it. England leapt over India to became the No 1 T20 team in the world. An unchanged side did what they had done twice before, and seven times this year, beating Sri Lanka, and with a flourish. Harry Brook\u2019s 23rd win in 26 completed matches since he became captain was an exhibition match: an eight-wicket win with more than 10 overs to spare. The good-natured crowd in the autumn Old Trafford sun were left looking around for more entertainment as the ground packed up around them.<\/p>\n

Such was England\u2019s dominance that the huge expanse of Old Trafford seemed to shrink when they were fielding. In their mismatched navy blue trousers and royal blue (and red) tops, they were everywhere, long-legged praying mantises patrolling the damp ground. Here Liam Dawson avoiding Jofra Archer\u2019s footwork for a neat run-out of Eshan Malinga; there a double-handed diving effort by Harry Brook at short midwicket to get rid of the dangerous Pathum Nissanka. And there the giant form of Jamie Overton blocking Kamil Mishara\u2019s attempt to clear the rope. The only blip was Tom Banton slipping on the grass in front of the press box and missing a chance to ger rid of Kamindu Mendis, but this England can flick away such blips.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s bowlers ran smoothly through their paces. Sonny Baker continued the good impression he had given this series with two for 17 from his 3.5 overs, while Overton\u2019s miserly four overs, one for 15 may cheer up his brother, Craig, whose Somerset side\u2019s County Championship ambitions were near-dashed by Yorkshire on Friday.<\/p>\n

Will Jacks runs out Sri Lanka’s Charith Asalanka. Photograph: Martin Rickett\/PA<\/p>\n

With the bat, it was business as usual. There were three stinging fours by Aneurin Donald, but he missed the chance to ink his name on a winter tour after advancing with ambition at Tharindu Ratnayake, missing and turning round to find he had been stumped. That brought Harry Brook and a throaty cheer, and he wasn\u2019t hanging around. Twenty-one runs came off Thushara\u2019s over, a wristy flick for six followed immediately by a wide spray through the keeper\u2019s gloves for five wides and then another four clipped off the boots and an extra cover carve.<\/p>\n

Take your pick of the rest: Buttler flaying Malinga without moving his boots for four down the ground; or swatting him for six, like a September wasp in the kitchen, to bring up his fifty off 30 balls; or the one handed six to finish it. Sri Lanka\u2019s effort was a comedy of errors, wides and misfields, though they did manage to run out Brook before the close as he gambled on a quick single and was beaten by Hasaranga with a nimble turn-and-throw, for 33 off 21 balls.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s lowest score of the series did come with a bit of panache. There were seven sixes, including Nissanka\u2019s top-edged one off Joffra Archer and a slog-swept one off Liam Dawson\u2019s first ball. But all the best intentions fizzled under pressure, with two run-outs and a freakish hit wicket as Hasaranga swung so hard that his bat went leg side and he ended up on one knee knocking off one of his own bails.<\/p>\n

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The watching Stephen Fleming, who had been unveiled to the press in his first press conference as Test coach, was seen out in the middle as England warmed up, chatting happily with Brendon McCulllum, his white-ball counterpart and red-ball predecessor, and Kevin Pietersen. Test coach he may be but he has a long history of coaching franchise cricket and he will have liked what he saw. And there are three one-day internationals to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And with a one-handed six from Jos Buttler, that was it. England leapt over India to became the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-897970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}