Jayawardene century condemns England to defeat

Sri Lanka made it all-square in the one-day series after an excellent century from Mahela Jayawardene helped them at a 69-run victory over England.

Jayawardene produced is best ever performance in the one-day game to score 144 off 150 balls as Sri Lanka reached 309-5.

His 159-run partnership with Kumar Sangakkara was the backbone of the innings as the England seamers strugged on a flat Headingley pitch.

The hosts still looked like they could haul themselves into contention, with Eoin Morgan hitting a pacy half-century. But having made it to 201-4, England collapsed to 240 all-out in 45.5 overs.

 

That was the second ODI and it did not get any better in the third game.

With England 2-1 down in the Series there does not seem much prospect of a recovery unless the weather helps Anderson and Bresnan by producing swinging conditions at Trent Bridge and Old Trafford. Broad is a waste of space in the side at the moment as he could not hit the side of a barn with his nose against it; and Swann is not going to get much help from the wickets in limited overs cricket in England.

A complete rethink of the England ODI team strategy is required. Most of the successful ODI teams seem to have a good mix of batsmen who are going to attack the bowling right from the start, bowlers who can mix it up to restrict their opponents and captains who make use of the advantages of their Powerplays.

 

Anderson skittling the Sri Lanka batsmen today, 61-5 after 17.

We have a good ODI side just need to make a couple of changes:
Prior > Kieswetter
Bopara > Morgan