Sri Lanka completed a rare Test victory in England on Monday as they reached their target of 219 with untroubled ease on the fourth day at The Oval, with Pathum Nissanka’s unbeaten 127 leading them to a consolation win in a 2-1 series defeat.
After their impressive end to Sunday’s final session, Sri Lanka resumed at 94-1, needing a further 125 to win and knocked them off in a little over two hours to finish on 219-2 and win by eight wickets.
It was their fourth victory in 21 Tests in England over 40 years and their first since a 1-0 victory in a two-Test series 10 years ago.
“It is very special, winning in England,” Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva told the BBC. “The boys were tough enough to handle the pressure and get into some scenarios.
“It is not comfortable. There was hard work put in by the bowlers and batters. We were there in every match – had positive points. The boys wanted to win in the end.
“Credit to all of the bowlers. They have been on target from ball one. In the second innings they were spot on. He (Nissanka) has proved he is the best opener in Sri Lanka right now.”
Their Sunday evening assault had set them up to be favourites but the few England fans scattered around The Oval knew that a few early wickets could make things interesting.
Kusal Mendis had added nine to his overnight 30 before a brilliant running catch by Shoaib Bashir gave Gus Atkinson another wicket, but it proved the only bright note for England on an overcast south London day.
Opener Nissanka, who had hammered a quick 53 not out in Sunday’s final session to set up the chase, was initially more controlled in his approach, but kept the scoreboard ticking and reached his second Test century off 107 balls.
He then cut loose with some big hits and, with the experienced Angelo Mathews also looking untroubled for 32 not out, it turned into an absolute cruise that did not even need the entire first session.
England had been hoping for a 6-0 summer clean sweep after crushing West Indies 3-0 and claiming two more convincing victories over Sri Lanka.
They looked well-placed for a third after reaching 261-3 in their first innings but a collapse for a total of 325 kept the tourists in the game.
Sri Lanka still looked up against it after managing only 263 in reply but they fought back superbly by bowling England out for 156 in 34 overs on Sunday and then setting about their chase with gusto.
“We felt we were in a really good position and were outplayed for the last day and a session,” England captain Ollie Pope said. “We didn’t bat our best yesterday and didn’t bowl our best…
“We would have liked to have 400 on board in that first dig but felt there was a fair bit in the wicket and felt we could bowl them out for a fair bit less than us… A few chances went down but that is cricket.
“We had a poor day three and credit to Sri Lanka as well. We weren’t at our best but that was a brilliant knock from Nissanka as well. There are a couple of good lessons we can learn from day three.”
England now turn their attention to white ball cricket against Australia, starting with a T20 on Wednesday.