England powered their way to a historic five wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the fourth one day international played under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.
The visitors also with this win wrapped up the series 3-1 with the fifth and final game scheduled for Saturday at the same venue. This was the first time that England had clinched a one day Series on Sri Lankan soil and also their first series win in the sub continent after 21 years.
Their success of course was delayed to a certain extent when paceman Dilhara Fernando struck twice in successive deliveries with 18 runs still needed for victory. However Kevin Pieterson played his best innings in the series to guide England home scoring an unbeaten 63 from 75 balls with one six and four boundaries.
England’s run chase was spearheaded by their opening batsman Alistair Cook who provided a solid start to the innings along with his partner Phil Mustard. They maintained the required run rate throughout the innings and collected their runs without taking any risks.
Mustard of course departed in the sixth over with the score at 30 having struck four boundaries but Cook carried on with the good work and consolidated their position to set the pace for a series clinching victory.
Cook’s innings had a great amount of significance because he crossed the fifty run mark for the second time in his career while playing in his 15th one day international match.
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