On Monday (September 9), Sri Lanka defeated England by 8 wickets in the third and final test of the three-match Test series held at The Oval. On Day Four of the match, Sri Lanka chased down a fourth innings target of 219 runs with only 2 wickets lost. Opener Pathum Nissanka was Sri Lanka’s top scorer remaining unbeaten on 127 off 124 balls during his stay. His innings included 13 fours and 2 sixes. He added 111 runs with Angelo Matthews (32 not out) for the third wicket pair that got Sri Lanka over the line after 40.3 overs.
This win against England at The Oval has helped to avert a series whitewash for Sri Lanka and at the same time moved them above England in World Test Championship point table also moving them to 5th place. Sri Lankans now have 42.86 PCT%. On another hand,this was England’s first loss this summer leading them drop down to 6th place with a PCT% 42.19.
Earlier this year, England suffered a 1-4 defeat in the five-match Test series against India while they had whitewashed West Indies in July; then they went ahead and won their first two tests against Sri Lanka too. But Sri Lanka turned things around completely on day three of that match at Oval when they bowled out their opponents for just 156 runs in an innings for which bowler Suranga Lakmal took 7 wickets at the cost of only 84 runs.
Indian cricket team led by Rohit Sharma which takes on Bangladesh next week in two-match Test series, is presently atop the WTC 2023-25 points table. Two-time WTC losing finalists’ have PCT% of about 68.52 while Australia (62.50 per cent) are in the second position among this group that won the 2023 series.
2021 WTC winners New Zealand with a PCT% of 50.00 is ranked third while Bangladesh is ranked fourth after winning two matches against Pakistan at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium within a span of two days (45.83%).
On the other hand, Sri Lanka’s rise means that South Africa has once again dropped to No 7 in the standings behind Pakistan (19): among others like West Indies who come last with just about 18.52 pct%.
