Kumar Sangakkara delighted with Sri Lanka's thumping win over England

Team Sri Lanka has had a rough run of form in ODI cricket over the last couple of years. They have slumped and surrendered meekly on most occasions, facing embarrassing defeats and encountering awkward fallouts. They stared at a whitewash at home recently when they took the field for the final ODI of their five-match ODI series against England at home.

England led the series 3-0 (one match being abandoned) and eyed a clean 4-0 scoreline. Little did they know that they would end up witnessing a serious fight from the Sri Lankan side in the contest. The hosts came up with a thoroughly clinical performance that shocked quite a few for sure. Batting first, Sri Lanka posted a massive 366/6 on the board.

Their openers, Niroshan Dickwella (95) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (54) added 137 runs for the opening stand. Next, skipper Dinesh Chandimal scored 80 coming in at number three. The impetus to the innings was given by the underfire batter Kusal Mendis who blasted 56 off just 33 balls with a solitary four and six maximums to his name. England, in the run chase, faltered big time and were reduced to 132/9 when the rain intervened and Sri Lanka were announced the winners by the DLS method by a whopping 219 runs.

This win will certainly be a big morale booster for the island nation and the former Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara was quick to hail the effort of the team and Kusal Mendis, in particular. Sangakkara cited that the opening stand indeed becomes very vital in games with big totals. For Mendis, who has been in the firing range of the critics, Sangakkara noted that it is all about remembering the goods and repeating the same process time and again.

Here is what Kumar Sangakkara had to say after the game:

“Great batting by @OfficialSLC. Example of why a solid opening partnership is vital to setting or chasing big totals when 2 new balls are in play. @KusalMendis1 shows what he can deliver. Remember and repeat the process,” Kumar Sangakkara wrote in his tweet.

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