Reporting note: this article draws on Sky Sports; PGLive provides the summary and editorial framing.
Sri Lanka chased down 430 to beat England in Rawalpindi, and the Harry Brook double century that made the chase necessary finished on the losing side. Brook made 202 from 116 balls, reaching 200 in 114 deliveries for the fastest ODI double hundred. England's 429-4 was not enough.
Brook's 202 is the highest individual score for England in a men's ODI, passing Ben Stokes' 182 against New Zealand in 2023. His innings contained 21 fours and 10 sixes. Tom Banton, Joe Root and Will Jacks all added half-centuries around him.
The target was the second-highest ever successfully chased in ODI cricket, behind South Africa's 438-9 against Australia in Johannesburg in 2006. At the halfway stage, Sri Lanka were widely written off.
Harry Brook double century sets a record England cannot use
Brook had said earlier in the week that he wished player statistics carried a match-winning column. For much of Thursday it looked as though his would be ticked. Instead his hundred and his double hundred arrived in an innings that ended in defeat.
"I always say I want to make match-winning contributions, have a match-winning impact," Brook said. "Unfortunately I've got 200 and it's not been match-winning. In my eyes, it doesn't matter. It had no value whatsoever."
Sky Sports pundit Mark Butcher said Brook's balance, hands and control of the bat face let him play a shot to almost every delivery. Nasser Hussain called him the best male multi-format batter in the world and said his form makes England contenders at next year's 50-over World Cup in Africa.
Sri Lanka lose two early then rebuild through Rathnayake
Sri Lanka were 24-2 and looked finished. Josh Tongue bowled Kamindu Mendis, then Gus Atkinson deflected the ball onto the non-striker's stumps to run out captain Kusal Mendis, who had not faced a ball.
Pavan Rathnayake top-scored with 130 from 106 balls. He put on 166 with Avishka Fernando for the third wicket and 133 with Dasun Shanaka, promoted up the order, for the fourth. Fernando and Shanaka both made 97, Shanaka's runs coming from 50 balls with eight sixes.
England's short bowling and the middle-overs problem
Hussain said England overcompensated. They had bowled too full in an 87-run defeat to Pakistan at the same venue on Tuesday and dropped too short here, particularly to Rathnayake.
England took only one wicket between Kusal's run out in the fifth over and Rathnayake holing out off Sam Curran at long-on in the 41st. Hussain called the shortage of middle-overs wickets a long-standing issue that the side has to solve.
Curran conceded 103 runs from his nine overs, playing only his second game since The Hundred in August after a groin injury. Adil Rashid did not play in Rawalpindi, and Jofra Archer was rested for the series.
Kumar Sangakkara, also working for Sky Sports, said England needed an all-out push for wickets at 24-2 with 429 on the board, or should have turned to death bowling early to cut the boundaries. "The only way they were going to lose the game was by the boundary count rising," he said.
Liyanage finishes the chase in the final over
Janith Liyanage ended unbeaten on 61. He hit two fours and a six across three balls off Curran to leave 29 needed from 21 deliveries, then struck the winning six with one ball to spare after Tongue took two wickets in two balls at the start of the final over.
Hussain described Sri Lanka as close to perfect for 50 overs and singled out Liyanage's composure, saying his body language told his team-mates to leave the finish to him.
Brook was generous afterwards. "We definitely didn't execute what we were trying to do for long enough," he said. "We were probably erring on the short side which played into their hands. Hats off to Sri Lanka. They've played an absolute blinder there."
What England take to Lahore
England's next tri-series match is against Pakistan in Lahore on Sunday. Brook said the side would take learnings from Rawalpindi, with the bowling plans the clear area to fix before the 50-over World Cup cycle sharpens.
The original report is by skysports.com.
Residual tension: the ground's noise flattened in the 41st over, when Rathnayake holed out to long-on and the chase stopped looking impossible.
