Phil Salt was the only bright spot in England's underwhelming batting performance against Sri Lanka in their Super 8s clash in Pallekele on Sunday (February 22). Put into bat, England huffed and puffed their way to a respectable but arguably under-par total of 146 on a slightly two-paced surface.
Salt (62 off 40) was the top-scorer for England and it was a story of two halves if we were to introspect England's batting performance. Take out Salt's innings and the rest of England's batters cumulatively added 84 off 80 balls, which is just over a run-a-ball. However, Salt himself didn't go bonkers from the start.
In fact, Salt's half-century came off 36 balls and it is the second slowest of his international career. With wickets falling around him and a pitch that wasn't easy to play shots on from the start, Salt took his time. Just after getting to his milestone, he hammered 12 off the next three balls before perishing against the run of play.
ALSO READ
England were in with a chance of breaching 160 if Salt had batted through but his dismissal brought up about a mini-implosion that wrecked the back end of the innings. Will Jacks, though, added some valuable runs with a 14-ball 21 and ensured that the innings didn't fall off the cliff completely.
Dunith Wellalage (3-26) and Maheesh Theekshana (2-21) were exceptional for Sri Lanka as they tied down England's batters with guile and accuracy. The other spinner, Dushan Hemantha had a poor outing as he couldn't exploit the surface to his advantage, leaking 38 from his four overs.