England aim to ram home advantage

June 26, 2016
Start time 1030 local (0930 GMT)

Eoin Morgan demanded improvement from his England side after they escaped with a last-ball tie in the opening ODI of the series. He got it in no uncertain terms at Edgbaston. Accurate bowling, and a lively fielding display, was followed by a dominant, free-wheeling opening stand as Alex Hales and Jason Roy plundered the record books in a 10-wicket victory.

The turnaround is now swift to the third match; a chance for England to carry their surge forward in Bristol, and an opportunity for Sri Lanka to quickly dust themselves off. But things are threatening to unravel for Angelo Mathews' side after seeing a victory slip away and then his team dominated in all three departments.

Too much in Sri Lanka's batting is currently resting on the shoulders of Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal - to add to the problems that pair are also under an injury cloud having both suffered hamstring problems. Upul Tharanga's breezy fifty at No. 7 at Edgbaston suggested he may be wasted down in the middle order.

England, having shaken off the rust from the opening match, will be aiming to ram home their advantage and take an unbeatable lead in the series, although, let it not be forgotten, that the Super Series has already been secured.

At the beginning of the series, the question of balance, in the absence of Ben Stokes, was a significant talking point, and at Trent Bridge, there were times when the lack of another main bowling option looked a problem. However, at Edgbaston, Joe Root's three overs escaped with little punishment, while Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid conceded just 75 in 19 overs between them.

England WTLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LTWWL

20-0-70-2: those are handy figures for Adil Rashid over the first two matches of the series. The legspinner has shown outstanding control when thrown the ball, bowling both his spells straight through to ensure Sri Lanka struggled to build much of a tempo to their innings. In both games, he has been helped by the early wickets nicked out by the pacemen, but the impressive factor in Rashid's performances has been the lack of the really loose deliveries. There will still be days when it does not go so well for him, but he is a bowler increasingly capable of responding to the pressure.

Upul Tharanga has played 156 of his 176 ODI innings as an opening batsman. He has 13 hundreds to his name - putting him fifth on Sri Lanka's all-time list - albeit just one of them has come since a stellar 2011 in which he scored four. Sri Lanka have lost early wickets in both matches so far, and it would surely be worthwhile considering using Tharanga in the position he has forged for the majority of his career.

There would appear to be little need for England to change anything after such a resounding victory, unless there is a desire to rotate anyone.

England (probable) 1 Alex Hales, 2 Jason Roy, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 David Willey, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 Adil Rashid

Chandimal followed Mathews in picking up a hamstring problem at Edgbaston and did not keep wicket in the second half of the match. Both players will undergo fitness tests on Sunday morning. Keeping options is one thing Sri Lanka are not short of, but they can ill-afford to lose Chandimal's batting. Mathews did not move freely when batting and was unable to bowl.

Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Kusal Perera, 2 Danushka Gunathilaka, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Upul Tharanga, 7 Seekkuge Prasanna, 7 Suraj Randiv, 9 Farveez Maharoof, 10 Nuwan Pradeep, 11 Suranga Lakmal

The most recent Royal London Cup match at this ground produced 694 runs in 100 overs. The forecast is not entirely promising, with rain due to move in during the afternoon after a bright start.

"A lot of hard work goes into batting, and a lot of emotions. So once those runs came to me, it all came out. It will be interesting to see my celebration - because I don't really know what happened."
Jason Roy on his exuberant celebrations

"We have to try to flush it out of the system and forget about this game as quickly as possible - because we've got only one day to come back and play pretty well.''
There is no time to dwell for Angelo Mathews