Dominant England seek series knockout

June 29, 2016
Start time 1300 local (1200 GMT)

So now it's official. Break out the Brexit gags and wallow in whatever the Icelandic is for schadenfreude. England really, really, really doesn't want to be involved with Europe in any way, shape or form.

What a time to be alive. Happily, for those of an escapist bent, the nation's cricketers have rarely had much need to engage with the continent - save for their biennial ICC-tournament humiliations at the hands of the Netherlands and Ireland, of course. But, when it comes to being upstaged by plucky islanders who thrive on their underdog status, well, they more or less wrote the book.

From Sri Lanka's maiden Test victory over England, way back in 1992-93, via Murali's magic at The Oval in 1998, and a brace of infamous World Cup drubbings in 1996 and 2011, England's cricketers have been taught the hard way never to make assumptions about their pre-eminence.

Sure enough, the trend continues in 2016. Despite a record-shattering victory in the second ODI at Edgbaston, a combination of an off-the-boil first outing at Trent Bridge and the onset of bad weather in Bristol mean that England are just 1-0 up with two to play as they prepare for the fourth match of the series at The Oval. Realistically, it is hard to see any way back for a Sri Lanka side that has lacked impetus with the bat and penetration with the ball, and yet we were making similar claims ahead of their fightback at Lord's in the third Test earlier this month - and that didn't quite follow the presumed script.

That said, it will take quite a collapse in resolve from England to squander their hard-earned lead. Despite the early loss of Alex Hales in their run-chase at Bristol, that target of 249 ought still to have been hunted down with ease, following a middling batting display that relied too heavily on two senior batsmen nursing injury concerns - Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal - and seemed almost a throwback to England's own one-day batting tactics of the early- to mid-2000s, as they nudged ineffectual singles and preserved wickets for a late onslaught that never entirely materialised.

There are still several untested elements to England's line-up - rain, coupled with that ten-wicket win in the second match, means that only Hales and Jason Roy have had any meaningful time in the middle since the lacklustre display at Trent Bridge that left them scrambling a last-ball six for the tie. But with the ball, the addition of Chris Jordan's death-bowling prowess added an extra layer of impenetrability to a varied and incisive attack, in which Adil Rashid's legspin has been particularly hard to collar.

If the rain stays away, and there's no absolute guarantee of that, then England can expect to wrap up the series under the Oval floodlights tomorrow evening, and raise the spirits of the nation, once and for all. But there have been a lot of assumptions flying around the country in recent days, and not very many of them have come to fruition.

England WTLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LTWWL

Joe Root, who swept the board in England's player of the year awards last month, barely put a bat out of place in a stellar 12 months, up to and including the World T20 in India. But since the English summer got underway, he has not enjoyed the most fruitful of homecomings. There's not been much evidence that he is out of form as such - a well-crafted 80 in the second Test suggested otherwise - but he hasn't spent quite enough time at the crease to be sure. Four single-figure scores and a rain-aborted 11 not out at Bristol complete his season's efforts. He'll want to reassure himself, if no-one else, that he has not mislaid his touch.

If Kusal Mendis, at the age of 21, stores away the memories of this maiden tour of England and cultivates them for future payback, then Sri Lanka are bound to be well served by a rising star whom Kumar Sangakkara, no less, has earmarked for great things. He's managed three fifties on the tour so far, one in the Headingley Test, another against Ireland, and the third - 53 at Bristol on Sunday - which helped restore Sri Lanka's impetus after the early loss of both openers. There is plenty on which he can improve - in particular he was troubled by Liam Plunkett's lift and bounce and eventually caught on the hook - but his willingness to front up has not gone unnoticed in adversity.

Moeen Ali was rested in Bristol to make way for Jordan's return, an understandable rejig given his slight drop-off in form, allied to the fact that Rashid has added impressive control to his ever-improving command of variation. The resulting five-man attack offers pleasing variety to cover for the ongoing absence of Ben Stokes and deserves another outing, although the unsettled weather may influence the final selection. There's little point in fiddling with the batting, seeing as the middle order has had a solitary airing all series.

England (probable) 1 Alex Hales, 2 Jason Roy, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 David Willey, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 Adil Rashid

Sri Lanka's patched-up batsmen were a qualified success at Bristol - they managed to put runs on the board, even if their mobility limited their reliability between the wickets, and both Mathews and Chandimal have been passed fit. Dasun Shanaka replaced Suraj Randiv for their last outing and, despite being the most culpable of Sri Lanka's mis-callers, he is set for another outing. Farveez Maharoof continues to be available despite a damaged finger.

Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Kusal Perera, 2 Danushka Gunathilaka, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Upul Tharanga, 7 Seekkuge Prasanna, 8 Dasun Shanaka, 9 Farveez Maharoof, 10 Nuwan Pradeep, 11 Suranga Lakmal

There's rain on the radar for Wednesday afternoon, which doesn't bode well given how torrential it has been lately when the heavens have opened. Despite being a floodlit game, play has to get underway at 1pm due to local restrictions on late-night revelry, which means - seeing as we are only a week past the longest day of the year - the match is likely to finish in manageable twilight anyway. The pitch itself has got a bit more grass on than expected, according to Eoin Morgan.

"The first game was a kick up the backside, more than anything, so bouncing back from that at Edgbaston I thought was brilliant, then backing that up with our bowling performance at Bristol was also very good."
Eoin Morgan is pleased with how his team has responded after a sluggish start at Trent Bridge

"There are still two ODI games left, we still want to win those games. It's 1-0 so if we can do that, we'll win the series. Everyone is looking forward and trying 200% at practice but we need to improve."
It appears that Upul Tharanga's maths has a sunnier outlook than the British economy.