England vs Sri Lanka | ENG vs SL 1st T20I: Jos Buttler fifty helps England beat Sri Lanka in first T20 International at Cardiff

The series of three T20 International matches between England and Sri Lanka began on Wednesday night. In the first match of the series, the host English team registered a big victory at the Cardiff ground. In this first T20 match, England defeated Sri Lanka by 8 wickets with 17 balls to spare. In the match, the Sri Lankan team had given a target of 130 runs to England, which they easily achieved on the basis of ‘Man of the Match’ star opener Jos Buttler. With this, the English team has taken a 1-0 lead in the series.

In this first T20 match of the series, the Sri Lankan team led by Kusal Perera won the toss and decided to bat first. English all-rounder Sam Curran gave Sri Lanka the first blow in the second over in the form of Avishka Fernando (0) for a total of 3 runs. While on the score of 31 runs, Chris Jordan also showed the way to the pavilion to the second opener Danushka Gunatilak (19).

Kusal Perera tried to handle

Liam Livingstone then dismissed Kusal Mendis (9) and Mark Wood cheaply dismissed Dhananjay de Silva (3). Captain Kusal Perera and Dasun Shanaka shared a brief partnership but Kusal Perera was also dismissed after scoring 30 runs in 26 balls with one four and one six. He was shown the way to the pavilion by spinner Adil Rashid in the 14th over.

Shanaka’s half-century but not a big score

Fortunately, in the midst of a drought, Dasun Shanaka’s knock of 50 runs in 44 balls gave some respite to the team. Shanaka hit 3 fours and 2 sixes in his innings. During this Rashid also dismissed Wanindu Hasaranga (5). While on the last ball of the innings, Sam Curran also dismissed Shanaka (50 runs). All the wickets of Sri Lanka did not fall but they could score only 129 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 20 overs. During this, Sam Curran and Adil Rashid took 2-2 wickets for England while Wood, Jordan and Livingstone took 1-1 wickets.

England’s befitting reply, Butler’s blast

To answer, hosts England had a target of 130 runs. First of all, the opening pair of Jos Buttler and Jason Roy made an excellent partnership of 80 runs for the first wicket and made rapid strides towards victory. In the tenth over, Dushmanta Chamira got Jason Roy (36 off 22 balls) caught by Gunatilaka. But at the other end, Jos Buttler’s smoky innings continued. Meanwhile, Udana dismissed David Malan (9) cheaply but Buttler’s innings nullified the small successes of Sri Lanka. Buttler played an unbeaten 68 off 55 balls which included 8 fours and a six. With this, England achieved the target in 17.1 overs and took an early lead in the T20 series.