Key events
WICKET! England 72-6 (Kemp c de Silva Dilhari 1)
Sri Lanka could be closing in on an historic victory. Kemp chips Dilhari to long on, where Nilakshi de Silva takes a terrific running catch. England are officially in all sorts.
11th over: England 72-5 (Kemp 1, Gibson 0) Dani Gibson survives an LBW review first ball! She was hit plumb in front by a low full toss from Atapaththu, who reviewed with understandable confidence. Replays showed a crucial inside edge onto the pad.
WICKET! England 72-5 (Jones st Sanjewaani b Athapaththu 20)
All bar two overs have been bowled by the spinners and England are again finding life tricky. It just got trickier: Jones has been stumped by Anushka Sanjeewani. She ran down the track, missed a ball that skidded on and was stumped with the minimum of fuss by Sanjeewani. What a beautiful wicketkeeper she is.
10th over: England 70-4 (Jones 19, Kemp 0) That was the last ball before drinks. England were just threatening to get away, but Sri Lanka have pulled them back in.
Jones, who has been less frenetic since her successful review, hit Dilhari down the ground for a couple of boundaries earlier in the over. The second was lovely, driven over mid-off on the run. England need her now.
WICKET! England 70-4 (Knight LBW b Dilhari 18)
A promising partnership ends with Knight given out LBW after missing a reverse sweep. She has decided to review. It’s fairly high, but I reckon this will be umpire’s call and therefore out.
Here comes the replay… it’s out! It was hitting middle and leg, and wasn’t high at all. There was a murmur on UltraEdge as the ball went past the bat but not a spike, so the third umpire was satisfied there was no bat involved.
9th over: England 58-3 (Knight 17, Jones 9) Knight sweeps Ranaweera over square leg for four, an excellent stroke. Jones sweeps four more, this time through midwicket. That’s a much better over for England, 10 from it.
8th over: England 48-3 (Knight 12, Jones 3) That might be a big moment, although so far Jones hasn’t really oozed permanance at the crease. Knight looks calm enough, Jones less so.
JONES IS NOT OUT!
No spike as the ball passes the bat, so Jones survives.
WICKET? England 47-4 (Jones c Sanjewaani b Dilhari 2)
England are in big trouble here. Amy Jones has gone, brilliantly caught behind after gloving an ugly reverse-hoick off the new bowler Kavisha Dilhari. Or is she? England have reviewed.
7th over: England 44-3 (Knight 10, Jones 1) Time for more spin, in this case the left-armer Inoka Ranaweera. She dismissed both these batters at Chelmsford on Saturday, and threatens to do so again when Knight, beaten in the flight, chips short of long-off. Jones then misses a slog-sweep. England are a bit rattled.
6th over: England 41-3 (Knight 8, Jones 0) That was the last ball of the over, and indeed the Powerplay. This is getting extremely interesting.
WICKET! England 41-3 (Bouchier c Dilhari b Prabodhani 23)
Uh-oh. The ball after late-cutting elegantly for four, Bouchier chips Prabodhani straight to long-on. That ends a promising but incomplete innings of 23 from 18 balls. England are in a game here.
5th over: England 34-2 (Bouchier 17, Knight 7) Bouchier drives Fernando elegantly through mid-off for her third boundary, then flicks a simple single to deep midwicket. On this occasion nobody looks interested in coming back for a second. England are recovering pretty well from that desperate start.
4th over: England 27-2 (Bouchier 12, Knight 6) Bouchier has made 22 and 12 in her first series as opener, so she’ll be keen to kick on. Meanwhile, Heather Knight gets her first boundary with a classy back cut off the left-arm spinner Sugandika Kumari.
3rd over: England 21-2 (Bouchier 11, Knight 1) Capsey wasn’t happy at all as she walked off the field. I’d need to see it again but my feeling is that were both at fault.
Bouchier will feel she has some making up to do, either way, and she makes a good start with successive boundaries off Chamari Athapaththu. The first shot was lovely, a drive threaded between extra cover and mid-off, and the second was an efficient pull when Athapaththu dropped short.
2nd over: England 11-2 (Bouchier 2, Knight o) That was the last ball of the over. The odd thing is that there was a fair bit of time for one of Bouchier or Capsey to change their mind, but they both stayed at the same end and that made the run-out a formality.
WICKET! England 11-2 (Capsey run out 9)
This is an almighty mess! Alice Capsey has been run out after a desperate mix-up. Maia Bouchier worked a single to deep midwicket, turned for a second and then changed her mind. Capsey kept running, so they both ended up at the non-striker’s end. Sri Lanka had all the time in the world to pull off the run-out, and Capsey walked off with a face like thunder.
1st over: England 8-1 (Bouchier 0, Capsey 8) Wyatt walked off chuntering and swishing her bat. She is such a key player, and has been in pulsating form this summer, so that’s a significant blow for England.
The new batter Alice Capsey crashes her second ball to the cover boundary. It was in the air for a while but perfectly save. She gets another boundary off the last ball, dancing down to belt a lofted drive wide of mid-off. Excellent batting.
WICKET! England 0-1 (Wyatt c Perera b Fernando 0)
An amazing start! Danni Wyatt has slapped Inoshi Fernando’s first ball straight to cover. It was a long hop, essentially, and Wyatt almost had too much time. She threw everything at it but miscued the ball straight to Hasini Perera.
Here come the players. It’s a sweltering evening in Derby, and time for England to face another trial by spin.
Team news
England bring in Mahika Gaur for Issy Wong, who is struggling at the moment. Sri Lanka are unchanged.
England Wyatt, Bouchier, Capsey, Knight (c), Jones (wk), Kemp, Gibson, Dean, Glenn, Cross, Gaur.
Sri Lanka Athapaththu (c), Sanjeewani (wk), Samarawickrama, Gunaratne, Perera, de Silva, Dilhari, Ranaweera, Kumari, Prabodhani, Fernando.
Sri Lanka win the toss and bowl
It worked with a vengeance at Chelmsford, so why not. Heather Knight says she would have done the same.
🏴 TOSS NEWS 🇱🇰
Sri Lanka win the toss and bowl first in the deciding T20I against England at Derby! 🪙 pic.twitter.com/mZw3BYEBoS
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) September 6, 2023
Preamble
And now for something completely different: a series decider. So far this summer we’ve had three draws, two in the Ashes* and one last night in the men’s T20s. But tonight – barring a meteorological twist for the ages – we’ll have an actual winner, and nobody will be left metaphorically kissing their sister.
Few people expected the first decider of the summer to come in this series; even fewer expected Sri Lanka to wipe the floor with England as they did at Chelmsford on Saturday. Their white-ball record against England going into that game was awful – P26 L25 – but their eight-wicket win, inspired by the marvellous Chamari Athapaththu, brooked no argument.
A similar result today would be seismic. England haven’t lost a T20 series to a team other than Australia since 2010, and they’ve never lost a white-ball series to Sri Lanka. There’s a bigger picture, with two white-ball World Cups coming up in the next couple of years, so England can rationalise this as an unexpected bonus: a chance to watch their young players perform under the unique pressure of an actual series decider.
The match begins at 6pm.
* Yes, yes, I know there were a couple of mini-deciders during the women’s Ashes, but we’re all about the big picture here at OBO Towers. Oh aye.
