![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/52626_3765577_updates.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Dhananjaya de Silva of Sri Lanka looks at Joe Root (left) of England while his walking back to dressing room after dismissal during the 1st One Day International match between Sri Lanka and England at R. Premadasa Stadium on January 22, 2026 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. – SLC<\/p>\n
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka beat England in the first ODI of the three-match series, as their spinners ran through the visitors\u2019 batting during a tense chase of 272 at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Despite solid 60s from Joe Root and Ben Duckett, England fell 19 runs short, their run rate remaining below five an over for much of the innings.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s aggressive \u201cBazball\u201d approach struggled against a quartet of Sri Lankan spinners, who shared six wickets to secure a comfortable victory. <\/p>\n
The visitors\u2019 usually attacking batting resembled the restrained, often ineffective performances historically seen in South Asia.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka\u2019s 271-6 was built on steady contributions rather than explosive hitting. Kusal Mendis led with 93 not out from 117 balls, while Janith Liyanage added 46. <\/p>\n
Dunith Wellalage provided the finishing flourish with 25 not out off 12 balls, pushing the total to a defendable level on a spin-friendly Khettarama track.<\/p>\n
Jamie Overton\u2019s late hitting gave England a sliver of hope, but by the 40th over, the required run rate had climbed above 10 per over with four wickets in hand. <\/p>\n
In the final over, needing 20 runs to win, Overton turned down a single on the first ball and was then caught trying to clear the infield, ending England\u2019s challenge.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s middle order struggled as Duckett was trapped lbw by Jeffrey Vandersay attempting a reverse sweep, Root fell lbw to Dhananjaya de Silva after a review, Harry Brook was stumped, and Jacob Bethell fell similarly to Wellalage. <\/p>\n
Losing five wickets between the 28th and 40th overs, England never recovered.<\/p>\n
Mendis laid the foundation for Sri Lanka with cautious, smart batting, reaching 50 off 62 balls and remaining unbeaten in the 90s. <\/p>\n
Wellalage\u2019s late assault sealed the innings, while Adil Rashid was England\u2019s most effective bowler, taking key wickets including Liyanage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dhananjaya de Silva of Sri Lanka looks at Joe Root (left) of England while his walking back to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,7504,213619,4884,12647,4581,37755,16,15],"class_list":["post-713783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-england","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-england-cricket","tag-first-odi","tag-great-britain","tag-odi","tag-sri-lanka","tag-sri-lanka-cricket","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115940618896831343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}