Sam Curran stars with hat-trick as England go 1-0 up

A collective bowling performance headlined by Sam Curran's hat-trick played a pivotal role in England taking a 1-0 series lead in the first T20I against Sri Lanka in Pallekele. Curran picked up the wickets of Dasun Shanaka, Maheesh Theekshana, and Matheesha Pathirana in the 16th over as the visitors restricted Sri Lanka to 133 in the rain-affected 17-over clash. Adil Rashid too picked up a three-fer while Liam Dawson and Jamie Overton picked up a brace each. Jofra Archer went wicketless in his comeback game.

Having put Sri Lanka in to bat, Curran was hit for three boundaries by the Sri Lankan openers. Kamil Mishara hit two fours and a six before miscuing one to Dawson off Jamie Overton. The runs continued to flow with boundaries from Nissanka and Kusal Mendis. The former was also lucky to survive a Dawson delivery that brushed the stumps, but as the bails didn't get dislodged, it raced away for four byes. Nissanka followed that up with a four and a six through the offside as the hosts raced to 50 for 1 in five overs.

Kusal toyed with Curran in the seventh over as he conceded 20 runs with the hosts continuing to race away. Until the seventh over, Sri Lanka were making the English bowlers look toothless but leggie Rashid got Nissanka to sky a slog-sweep straight up in the air to the gloves of Jos Buttler. Dawson picked up Charith Asalanka before Rashid scalped the dangerous Kusal for 37 and Dhananjaya de Silva. In between, Dawson picked up his second with the wicket of Jayanith Liyanage as Sri Lanka had collapsed from 76 for 1 to 100 for 6.

Dasun Shanaka and Wanindu Hasaranga hit a couple of lusty blows but the penultimate over saw Curran pick up the hat-trick before Overton wrapped up the innings by castling Hasaranga. Sri Lanka lost their last nine wickets for 57 runs.

In the chase, England got off the blocks as Buttler and Phil Salt came out flying. England had raced to 36 for 0 in 2.4 overs before Eshan Malinga, after conceding four boundaries in the over, had Buttler bowled with a slower delivery. Bethell hit a couple of slower deliveries to the fence before Malinga had the southpaw deceived with another slower ball that was lobbed straight to cover. Tom Banton (29 off 15) hit 17 runs off Hasaranga in the eighth over to keep England on the front foot before falling to a stunning catch by Asalanka.

Salt remained the glue for the entirety of the innings, biding his time with a 35-ball 46, with the target in sight. After the 15th over with England at 125 for 4, the rain came down again but as the visitors were eleven ahead of the DLS par score at that stage, they took a 1-0 series lead.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 133 in 16.2 overs (Kusal Mendis 37, Pathum Nissanka 23; Adil Rashid 3-19, Sam Curran 3-38) lost to England 125/4 in 15 overs (Phil Salt 46, Tom Banton 29*; Eshan Malinga 2-24, Dasun Shanaka 1-12) by 11 runs (DLS).