England wrapped up the formalities at Cardiff as they accomplished a complete rout against Sri Lanka. By winning the fifth ODI in rather comprehensive fashion by a colossal margin of 122 runs, the hosts took the ODI series 3-0. In terms of victories by runs, this was England’s largest win over Sri Lanka. From the game’s perspective, it was a dominating performance from Eoin Morgan’s unit as the target of 325 was just too much for the Sri Lankans.
Swashbuckling England opener Jason Roy was named the Man of the series for his two destructive centuries. In the presentation ceremony, Roy made an interesting point when he revealed his ambition to play test matches and excel in the longest format for England. Such words were quite encouraging, considering they were said by a batsman who is more of a dasher.
“I think just scoring 40s, 30s, getting myself out and on a couple of occasions pushing myself to score big. I put in a lot of hard work, a lot of credit to the coaches for helping me out. There are some areas where we are working on. I would like to score a lot of runs for Surrey and of course, I want to play Test match cricket. That’s the dream,” said an ecstatic Roy, as he received the Man of the Series award.
Eoin Morgan was simply delighted with the effort and hailed the optimism within his side. “We adapted to the conditions well. Had I known about the pitch, I would have gone with two spinners. I think our pacers did well to hit good lengths. Given the ground, I think the bowlers did a great job to restrict Sri Lanka.”
“The belief in the change room has been outstanding. Jason Roy has been batting exceptionally well. Except myself, I think everyone has contributed to the team’s success. I think we got better with the series. One-off T20 is a good chance to rest a few guys and a good chance for a few guys to push their case strongly,” said Morgan.