Sri Lanka vs England: Joe Root helps tourists settle ODI series

Most of the action from England during the Ashes came via their off-field briefings as they tried to massage the story of a winter tour of discontent.

On a tense pitch at R Premadasa Stadium, it was the degrees of spin offered by the ball that emphasized the occasion.

In ODI matches since the beginning of 2024, this pitch has seen a spin rate of 2.93. In 23 bowling innings here in this time frame, England’s spin score today was the fourth highest at this venue.

England managed 3.15 degrees of spin in the first ODI but it was 3.62 here – an increase of 15% – which to Brook’s credit he astutely recognized was the best way to bowl a wicket.

There were 40.3 overs by spinners which is the most by an English bowling attack in an ODI. The previous record was 36 runs, in March 1985 in a 50-run match against Pakistan in Sharjah.

This was also the first time in an ODI that England had used six different spinners.

Rashid’s leg breaks were the most brilliant as he finished with an economy of 3.40 claiming the main first-class wickets of Sri Lanka opener Pathum Nissanka and skipper Sharith Asalanka.

But he was well supported by a phalanx of spinners – leg-spinners from Jack and Root, leg-spinners from Ahmed as well as Jacob Bethell’s orthodox left-arm spinner.

Five different spinners picked up a wicket – the most in an ODI innings by a team and the first by England.

The seven wickets that fell to spin was England’s second-most in an ODI, bettered only by the eight against the West Indies at North Sound in 2014.

England have longed to have that kind of depth in their slow bowling options on the subcontinent tours.