On This Day in 2018: England clean sweep Sri Lanka in a three-match Test series
2018 was a great year for England as they got the better of India in both ODI and Test series at home. They followed it with a comfortable ODI series win in Sri Lanka and a historic Test series win over the Lankans. The Joe Root-led team won the first two games of the 3-match Test series to take a series-winning lead of 2-0. With that lead, England registered their first Test series win on Sri Lankan soil since beating the hosts 2-1 in 2001.
England won the first Test in Galle by 211 runs only to spoil the farewell of Rangana Herath which was also England’s maiden Test win at the Galle Stadium. The visitors later secured a 57-run win in Pallekele despite none of their pacemen picking even one wicket throughout the Test. The final game of the 3-match Test series was hosted by Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo. England fancied their chances of a whitewash by picking only one specialist pacer in form of Stuart Broad.
England sweeping an away Test series 3-0:
– In South Africa in 1896
– In New Zealand in 1963
– In Sri Lanka in 2018Sri Lanka swept in a home Test series 0-3:
– Against Australia in 2004
– Against India in 2017
– Against England in 2018#SLvENG— Fox Sports Lab (@FoxSportsLab) November 26, 2018
Jonny Bairstow, who came into the playing XI for the final Test, stepped up on the opening day with an aggressive hundred. He smashed 110 from 186 balls with nine fours and a six to help England finish on 336. Bairstow shared a partnership of 100 and 99 respectively with Joe Root (46) and Ben Stokes (57). In reply, Sri Lanka cruised to 173/1 thanks to a 2nd wicket partnership of 142 between Dimuth Karunaratne (83) and Dhananjaya de Silva (73) before both the set batters got out in the space of five overs.
Sri Lankans collapsed to 240/10 losing their last nine wickets for 67 runs. Adil Rashid was the chief destructor with five wickets while Stokes claimed three wickets. Sri Lanka returned to the field to dismiss the visiting team’s top four cheaply. Dilruwan Perera got the wickets of England’s top three as they were reduced to 39/4. In this crisis situation, Stokes (42) added crucial runs with Jos Buttler in a quick span. The duo added 89 runs for the 5th wicket in 17.5 overs to extend the lead past the 200-run mark.
Buttler hit only three fours but scored 64 from only 79 balls as England ended up reaching 230 in their second essay. Chasing 327, the Lankans were five down for only 82. Kusal Mendis (86 off 129) and Roshen Silva (65 of 161) shared a century stand for 6th wicket but Lankans were reduced to 226/9 thanks to 4-wicket hauls by Moeen Ali and Jack Leach. A partnership of 58 runs for the final wicket could only bring down the winning margin of England to 42 runs with which they completed a whitewash.
