Liam Plunkett hit a six off the last ball to secure a tie against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge.
This is a game that Sri Lanka were winning up until a dramatic final over. A laboured 73 runs off 109 from Angelo Mathews and a cruising 59 off just 29 from Seekkuge Prassana, saw Sri Lanka to a total of 286 in their 50 overs.
England struggled to find any momentum in the chase, with four of their top-five all departing for single digit scores. In the middle order Jos Buttler did well to pull them back into the game. They had a stand of 138 for the seventh wicket. Jos Buttler was dismissed for 93 off 99 balls in the 43rd over. David Willey didn’t stay long making way for Plunkett after facing 12 balls for six in the 46th over with England on 235-7.
Plunkett and Woakes took nine runs from the 47th over, 10 from the 48th and 16 from the 49th to leave 14 required from the last. With Woakes facing, they took two runs off Nuwan Pradeep’s first ball of the over, a single off the second and third, the fourth ball was a dot. Woakes, now on 92 from 90 balls, managed to connect with Pradeep’s yorker to a vacant fine-leg and England ran three runs off the fifth ball. Sri Lanka would have been forgiven for thinking that the game was already in the bag as England now needed six runs from the last ball of the match to avoid a loss. Plunkett took strike for the final ball and in fine style he cleared the front leg, and launched the ball high over long-off to help England to an unlikely tie.
Photo: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
