Alex Hales scored the first Twenty20 International century of his career to power England to a strong win against Sri Lanka, chasing down a daunting target of 190 with six wickets and four balls to spare.
Set the stiffest of targets, England’s chase got off to the worst possible start, as Nuwan Kulasekara calmly sent down a double-wicket maiden.
Hales and Eoin Morgan, England’s best pair in this format, had plenty of room to give themselves a chance of pulling off a historic chase. Hales provided the muscle and Morgan the cheek, as Sri Lanka’s bowlers slowly came to grips with what they were up against.
Hales had no trouble picking off the boundaries, whether it was driving down the ground or picking the ball off his pads and whipping through midwicket. Morgan was more adventurous, gliding the ball behind and in front of point, and even pulling out the reverse sweep when the field warranted it.
The Hales-Morgan partnership matched the Tillaratne Dilshan-Mahela Jayawardene one for tempo, and amazingly, it did not take long for England to pull away from Sri Lanka. Hales brought up his half-century off 38 balls, Morgan off 32 and then the pair really opened their shoulders, targetting the medium pace of Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera.
After much confabulation, with 34 needed from three overs, Sri Lanka handed the ball to Malinga. Ravi Bopara opened the face of his bat to dab the first two balls he faced to the third-man fence, but Malinga put a lid on the rest of the over, and the equation was down to 23 needed off the final 12 balls.
Hales blasted Kulasekara over extra cover to bring up his first T20I hundred and then cleared his front leg to blast one over midwicket to significantly ease the pressure.
With six needed from the final over, bowled by Mathews, Hales monstered a six – his sixth of the day — over midwicket, taking England home. For the first half of the game, though, it was Sri Lanka all the way.
Source: The Island (Sri Lanka)
