Oval Cricket Ground in London: Sri Lanka toured England and played a 3 Test
match series there. England clinched the trophy early on with back-to-back wins
in the first two matches of the series. The official final match then began for both
teams on September 6 at the Oval Cricket Ground in London. Sri Lanka won the
toss and declared to bowl first and invited the England team to bat.
At the end of the first inning, England scored 325 runs in 69.1 overs. Captain Ollie
Pope scored the highest score of 154(156) runs, and opener Ben Duckett scored
86(79) runs for the team. Milan Ratnayake took the maximum 3 wickets, and
Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, and Dhananjaya de Silva took 2 wickets each for
Sri Lanka. After that, Sri Lanka played again modestly and were all out for just 263
runs in 61.2 overs.
Here, opener Pathum Nissanka 64(51), Captain Dhananjaya de Silva 69(111), and
Kamindu Mendis 64(91) were the highest scorers for the Sri Lankan team. On
behalf of England, Ollie Stone and Jos Hull took 3 wickets each, and Chris Woakes
took 2 wickets. The match was then in England's control until they went into the
second inning with a lead of 90 runs.
Using that, England were expected to set up a target of at least 300-400 runs. But
in the second innings, the Sri Lankan bowlers bowled furiously and bowled
England out for just 156 runs in 34 overs. At home, England recorded the lowest
score against Sri Lanka and had a poor record.
While wicketkeeper Jamie Smith scored the maximum 67(50) runs for the team,
Lahiru Kumara picked up 4 wickets, Vishwa Fernando 3 wickets, and Asitha
Fernando 2 wickets as the Sri Lankans blew away the home team's batting in an
incisive display of swing bowling.
In the end, Karunaratne was dismissed for 8(21) runs as Sri Lanka chased an easy
target of 219 runs. But another opener, Pathum Nissanka, came into action and
scored a half-century to give England a challenge. Like him, Gusal Mendis, who
came next, did his part and was dismissed for 39(37) runs. On the other hand,
Pathum Nissanka, who continued to play aggressively and showed England's
baseball, scored a century and secured 127*(124) runs with 13 fours and 2 sixes.

At the same time, Angelo Mathews’s partnership with Nissanka scored 32*(61)
runs with 3 fours, and Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets.
With this, 10 years after their victory at Leeds in 2014, Sri Lanka has achieved the
best record by defeating England in a match on their home soil. In the intervening
periods, Sri Lanka suffered 1 draw and 9 losses on England soil. After 1998, Sri
Lanka won at the Oval after 26 years. So Sri Lanka won a consolation to avoid a
whitewash defeat. On the other hand, England won the cup 2–1 (3).