Scorecard<\/a><\/p>\nEngland steamrollered Sri Lanka in the third T20 to complete a 3-0 series clean sweep and return to number one in the world rankings.<\/p>\n
Watched by new Test coach Stephen Fleming, England once again outclassed the tourists to conclude a one-sided series played on the fringe of autumn.<\/p>\n
England’s pace bowlers were outstanding in dismissing Sri Lanka for a paltry 124, then the home side chased the target in 9.4 overs.<\/p>\n
Jamie Overton conceded only 15 runs in his four overs, including taking a wicket. Sonny Baker’s improvement continued with 2-17 and Jofra Archer recovered from an expensive start to return 2-23.<\/p>\n
England’s fielding was sharp, best demonstrated by Liam Dawson’s direct hit to run out Eshan Malinga.<\/p>\n
The target was never likely to pose a challenge to an England batting line-up that remains powerful despite Phil Salt and Jacob Bethell being absent injured.<\/p>\n
Though opener Aneurin Donald was out for 13, Jos Buttler and Harry Brook strolled the pursuit with a second-wicket stand of 85.<\/p>\n
Brook was run out for 33, leaving Buttler to wrap it up with a six that left him unbeaten on 61.<\/p>\n
The victory by eight wickets was concluded with 62 balls to spare – the most for England in a home T20 international.<\/p>\n
The success was England’s 23rd win in 26 completed T20s since Brook took charge in the summer of 2024. They have reclaimed their number one ranking from India.<\/p>\n
The pity for this group is a rare lengthy wait until the next global T20 tournament. The next men’s T20 World Cup is not until 2028, the same year T20 cricket makes its debut in the Olympics.<\/p>\n
England are instead building towards a 50-over World Cup in southern Africa in the autumn of 2027. Three one-day internationals against the Sri Lankans begin in Durham on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Third T20 international, Old Trafford Sri Lanka 124 all out (18.5 overs): Nissanka 36 (24), K Mendis 35…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-776042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776042","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=776042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}