{"id":38531,"date":"2026-02-04T02:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/england-cricket-tourists-sweep-series-against-sri-lanka-in-low-scoring-thriller\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T02:26:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:26:02","slug":"england-cricket-tourists-sweep-series-against-sri-lanka-in-low-scoring-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/england-cricket-tourists-sweep-series-against-sri-lanka-in-low-scoring-thriller\/","title":{"rendered":"England cricket: Tourists sweep series against Sri Lanka in low-scoring thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">England successfully defended a target of 129 to win by 12 runs against Sri Lanka in an enthralling contest, completing a 3-0 T20 series sweep and entering the World Cup with momentum.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sam Curran hit a career-best 58 after a top-order collapse as England finished on 128-9, before the tourists&#8217; spinners took nine wickets to pull off an unlikely victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Will Jacks took 3-14, while Jacob Bethell secured the last four Sri Lankan wickets, including three in one over, to finish with 4-11 as the hosts were bowled out for 116.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Having chosen to bat, opener Ben Duckett was dismissed lbw for a golden duck, while Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton and Harry Brook were all removed for single figures prior to Curran taking his side to a score that still looked challenging to defend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Having already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/cricket\/articles\/cwynzgrjd4po\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">lost the series<\/a> with defeat in the first two games, Sri Lanka bowled superbly, with seamer Dushmantha Chameera taking 5-24, including the wicket of Curran with the penultimate ball of the innings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Luke Wood and Liam Dawson took early wickets on a worn pitch, before Kusal Mendis and Pavan Rathnayake fell to consecutive deliveries from Adil Rashid and Jacks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sri Lanka were still favourites and reached 90-4 before Jacks struck again, removing Kamindu Mendis and Janith Liyanage in consecutive overs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Part-time spinner Jacob Bethell then took control, dismissing Dunith Wellalage, Chameera and Dasun Shanaka in the 18th over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Having been handed the final over, he wrapped up the match with the dismissal of Maheesh Theekshana, helping England set a record for the lowest total they have ever successfully defended in T20s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">England start their World Cup campaign against Nepal on Sunday, 8 February (09:30 GMT).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/cricket\/articles\/c87rzy9e70vo?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>England successfully defended a target of 129 to win by 12 runs against Sri Lanka in an enthralling contest, completing a 3-0 T20 series sweep and entering the World Cup with momentum. Sam Curran hit a career-best 58 after a top-order collapse as England finished on 128-9, before the tourists&#8217; spinners took nine wickets to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38533,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38531\/revisions\/38533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}