{"id":23013,"date":"2026-01-28T14:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/root-and-brook-tons-fire-england-to-odi-series-win-over-sri-lanka\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:54","slug":"root-and-brook-tons-fire-england-to-odi-series-win-over-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/root-and-brook-tons-fire-england-to-odi-series-win-over-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Root and Brook tons fire England to ODI series win over Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"
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England’s Joe Root and Harry Brook struck contrasting centuries as the tourists powered to a 53-run victory over Sri Lanka in Colombo on Tuesday to secure a 2-1 win in their one-day series.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After choosing to bat, England were on the back foot when Ben Duckett (7) and Rehan Ahmed (24) fell inside the opening 11 overs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But Root and Jacob Bethell steadied the innings with a controlled 126-run stand for the third wicket before Bethell’s assured 65 ended when Jeffrey Vandersay struck.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Root then found a perfect partner in captain Brook, whose explosive innings shifted the momentum decisively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Brook plundered an ODI career-best 136 off 66 balls, hammering 11 fours and nine sixes in a blistering display that transformed England’s innings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Root anchored the other end with a composed unbeaten 111 off 108 deliveries, and together they added an unbeaten 191 from 113 balls to lift England to a commanding 357-3.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sri Lanka began their chase with intent. Kamil Mishara contributed 22, and Pathum Nissanka hammered five fours and three sixes in a 24-ball fifty before his dismissal by Jamie Overton checked the momentum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Captain Charith Asalanka (13) and Janith Liyanage (22) fell cheaply as England applied sustained pressure with disciplined bowling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The hosts slipped to 202-6 in the 32nd over and, although Pavan Rathnayake (121) kept Sri Lanka afloat with a composed maiden ODI century, wickets continued to fall around him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rathnayake’s resistance ended when Sam Curran breached his defence with a full delivery that knocked back his leg stump, and Sri Lanka were bowled out for 304.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It was an awesome effort from everybody involved,” said Player of the Match Brook. “Rooty’s just exceptional. To have him in the side helps every day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It was a lot better pitch than we were expecting. It still had a part to play and just glad that we got a good score and we managed to defend it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sri Lanka had won the first ODI by 19 runs before England levelled the series with a five-wicket victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It was tough to contain them (Root and Brook),” Asalanka said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I thought the ball might turn on this surface but when it’s not turning it’s hard to bowl in the last 10 overs with spinners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I think the Twenty20 series is the most important series before the T20 World Cup. We want to do the basic things right before an important World Cup.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The three-match T20 series starts on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22148,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-23013","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The three-match T20 series starts on Friday.","published_date":null,"news_description":"The three-match T20 series starts on Friday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26120,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23013\/revisions\/26120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}