Cardiff (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to field against England in the fifth and final one-day international at Cardiff on Saturday.
England had already won the series at 2-0 up with one to play following their dynamic six-wicket win in a rain-affected match at The Oval where opener Jason Roy made 162 on his Surrey home ground.
England made two changes, with Roy’s opening partner Alex Hale ruled out with a back niggle.
Hales was replaced by James Vince with off-spinner Moeen Ali making way for an extra seamer in Chris Jordan on a green-tinged pitch.
Sri Lanka made one change, left-arm seamer Chaminda Bandara coming for his debut in place of dropped all-rounder Farveez Maharoof as the tourists went in search of their first win on English soil this trip following a 2-0 defeat in the preceding three-Test series.
“We’ll have a bowl first with the weather around, and the wicket is slightly greener than the last one,” said Mathews.
“We batted well in the last game, just our bowling didn’t happen. Hopefully we will bat well second.”
England captain Eoin Morgan added: “I would have bowled first because of the green on the wicket.
“It’s a really important game for us. When we’ve gone ahead the series in the past we’ve almost let our foot off the accelerator.”
No sooner had Mathews won the toss then it began to rain again.
But the scheduled start of play was pushed back by just 10 minutes to 10:40am local time (0940 GMT), with no overs lost at that stage.
Teams
England: James Vince, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid
Sri Lanka: Kusal Perera, Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal (wkt), Angelo Mathews (capt), Seekkuge Prasanna, Upul Tharanga, Dasun Shanaka, Chaminda Bandara, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal
Umpires: Paul Reiffel (AUS), Michael Gough (ENG)
TV umpire: Bruce Oxenford (AUS)
Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.