{"id":406164,"date":"2026-02-03T20:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/406164\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T20:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:00:09","slug":"england-cricket-tourists-sweep-series-against-sri-lanka-in-low-scoring-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/406164\/","title":{"rendered":"England cricket: Tourists sweep series against Sri Lanka in low-scoring thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

England successfully defended a target of 129 to win by 12 runs against Sri Lanka in an enthralling contest, completing a 3-0 T20 series sweep and entering the World Cup with momentum.<\/p>\n

Sam Curran hit a career-best 58 after a top-order collapse as England finished on 128-9, before the tourists’ spinners took nine wickets to pull off an unlikely victory.<\/p>\n

Will Jacks took 3-14, while Jacob Bethell secured the last four Sri Lankan wickets, including three in one over, to finish with 4-11 as the hosts were bowled out for 116.<\/p>\n

Having chosen to bat, opener Ben Duckett was dismissed lbw for a golden duck, while Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton and Harry Brook were all removed for single figures prior to Curran taking his side to a score that still looked challenging to defend.<\/p>\n

Having already lost the series<\/a> with defeat in the first two games, Sri Lanka bowled superbly, with seamer Dushmantha Chameera taking 5-24, including the wicket of Curran with the penultimate ball of the innings.<\/p>\n

Luke Wood and Liam Dawson took early wickets on a worn pitch, before Kusal Mendis and Pavan Rathnayake fell to consecutive deliveries from Adil Rashid and Jacks.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka were still favourites and reached 90-4 before Jacks struck again, removing Kamindu Mendis and Janith Liyanage in consecutive overs.<\/p>\n

Part-time spinner Jacob Bethell then took control, dismissing Dunith Wellalage, Chameera and Dasun Shanaka in the 18th over.<\/p>\n

Having been handed the final over, he wrapped up the match with the dismissal of Maheesh Theekshana, helping England set a record for the lowest total they have ever successfully defended in T20s.<\/p>\n

England start their World Cup campaign against Nepal on Sunday, 8 February (09:30 GMT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England successfully defended a target of 129 to win by 12 runs against Sri Lanka in an enthralling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-406164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}