All-round Jordan helps England beat Sri Lanka in first ODI

LONDON: All-round show by England’s Chris Jordan helped hosts England beat Sri Lanka by 81 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method in the first One-Day international at the Oval on Thursday.

England all rounder Chris Jordan scored 38 runs with the bat and took three wickets as he is eyeing his place in the English test squad.  Gary Ballance and Harry Gurney gave impressive performances for the team as well.

"I came in to try to score with a flurry and I'm glad it came off," man-of-the-match Jordan told the BBC. "We wanted as many runs as we could because Sri Lanka bat really deep and we were wary of that.

"I want to keep improving my game and want to capitalise on any chances I get to score runs. We know they had to go some guns and luckily it came off."

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field first in the rain-hit ODI. The  English captain Alastair Cook (11) was dismissed early in the innings. Ian Bell scored his 31st ODI fifty and was back in the pavilion four balls later.

Rain interrupted for 2-1/2 hours and the match was reduced to 39 overs per side.

After the match resumed, Ballance became the top scorer for the side with 64 runs whereas Joe Root added 45 to the scorecard. Jordan scored five boundaries and two sixes to score 38 runs from 13 balls. The hosts managed scored 60 runs in the final four overs of their innings with run rate of 15 runs per over.

The visitors made a drastic start to the run chase as James Anderson dismissed Lahiru Thirimanne in the first over whereas veteran batsman Kumar Sangakkara was back in the pavilion after scoring just eight runs.

The rain interrupted the match for the second time and the Lankans were given a revised target of 226 from 32 overs.  Mahela Jayawardene top-scored with 35 runs as  the side kept losing wickets on regular basis and were having problems to score the runs required per over.

The visitors were back in the pavilion as they were all out on 144 runs. They trail the five match series 1-0

The second ODI will be played at Chester-le-Street on Sunday.

Source: Reuters