Joe Root Shines As England Whitewash Sri Lanka 2-0 At Galle, Now Await The India Tour

The England captain scored 186 runs before his unfortunate run out. Sri Lanka lose after securing a first innings lead. Spinners doing the trick for England on Day 4.

England clinch the series 2-0!

After securing a first innings lead, things looked positive for the Sri Lankan side before they came out to bat in the morning of Day 4 of the Test match. Experts said that if SL score a decent score by the end of the day, they have a good chance of levelling the series 1-1.

But Micky Arthur’s team did not show any resilience what so ever. They were bundled out for a merge 126 runs in the second innings. A lot of the credit must be given to two English spinners, Dom Bess and Jack Leach who picked up four wickets each in the second innings. Surprisingly, Captain Joe Root picked up the two remaining wickets. After a good batting performance by Mathews and Dickwella in the first innings, in a contrasting fashion, only one player could cross the 20 run mark. The Sri Lankan scores were as follows- 14, 13, 3, 5, 9, 7, 16, 4, 11, 40, 0.

The only respite for the Sri Lankans was the performance of spinner Embuldeniya who picked up 10 wickets in the match.

Here's a look at the match summary:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">England win 🎉<br><br>They defeat Sri Lanka by six wickets to take the Test series 2-0 👏<br><br>This is their sixth consecutive Test victory in Sri Lanka!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SLvENG?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>#SLvENG</a> ➡️ <a href="https://t.co/3ZC7G8CMYp" rel='nofollow'>https://t.co/3ZC7G8CMYp</a> <a href="https://t.co/jiOAK9rZqS" rel='nofollow'>pic.twitter.com/jiOAK9rZqS</a></p>&mdash; ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1353671433956675585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>January 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Although England lost four wickets below the score of 90, it was a pretty easy and straight-forward chase for England which was anchored by Jos Buttler and D Sibley. This is England’s sixth consecutive Test win in Sri Lanka. Joe Root also maintained his 100% win record as captain in Asia.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Joe Root maintains his imperious record in Asia! 👏<br><br>England have won five consecutive Test matches away from home for the first time since 1914 🤯<br><br>📺 Watch 👉 <a href="https://t.co/bT0CP9Q8No" rel='nofollow'>https://t.co/bT0CP9Q8No</a><br>📋 Scorecard 👉 <a href="https://t.co/OhjL7lE8OU" rel='nofollow'>https://t.co/OhjL7lE8OU</a><br>📱 Blog 👉<a href="https://t.co/cJNbB8VWVV" rel='nofollow'>https://t.co/cJNbB8VWVV</a></p>&mdash; Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) <a href="https://twitter.com/SkyCricket/status/1353672491529621504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>January 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Now, the English team would be looking at the series against India. They are going to play four tests, five T20I’s and three ODI’s against India. With many experienced players in the ranks along with people like Jacques Kallis in the coaching staff, England look prepared for the Indian challenge.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">With a 2-0 series sweep over Sri Lanka, England are now only 0.5% behind Australia in the ICC World Test Championship standings 👀<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WTC21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>#WTC21</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZoliydObpd" rel='nofollow'>pic.twitter.com/ZoliydObpd</a></p>&mdash; ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1353672015341891584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>January 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Meanwhile, the sun has set on the Sri Lankan team. They will have to come up with a consolidative plan to pose a challenge against the top teams. Joe Root was adjudged ‘Man Of The Match’ for his fighting innings of 186.