[Lord Snooty]

England have set off to Sri Lanka today for the first of their World Cup warm up tours. Eleven ODIs to go before it starts for England with a Valentine's Day love in with the Aussies in Melbourne.
First up are these seven matches in Sri Lanka and then four matches in Australia, two against the convicts and two against the Indians.

Captain Alistair Cook is confident we can go there and win the cup, well he would say that wouldn't he. On this first leg of the quest, they will have to cope without the injured James Anderson, who is travelling to South Africa with the Performance squad.
There's no Stuart Broad either, although he is hoping to be back for the Australian tri nation series. So no matter how well the likes of Harry Gurney, Steven Finn, Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes bowl in Sri Lanka they could be out of the picture by the time we get to Melbourne in February.

Sri Lanka meanwhile have just been whitewashed 5-0 in India. They've had some proper hammerings in there as well, with today's final match being lost by 3 wickets with 8 balls remaining being the closest they have got to matching the Indians. Two of the matches have been lost with over 5 overs left and two of them have been lost by over a hundred runs.
The fourth match in the series saw India's Rohit Sharma smash a world record 264 runs as India clocked up a massive 404-5. Can England take advantage of a Sri Lankan team battered and bruised or will this be just the tonic the home side need?

England squad: Alastair Cook ©, Moeen Ali, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Jos Buttler (w), Steven Finn, Harry Gurney, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Eoin Morgan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes.

Sri Lanka squad: Angelo Mathews ©, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kusal Perera, Kumar Sangakkara (w), Mahela Jayawardena, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeevan Mendis, Thilina Kandamby, Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera, Ajantha Mendis, Shaminda Eranga, Dhammika Prasad, Thisara Perera, Lahiru Gamage.

Fri Nov 21: v Sri Lanka A - Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo - England won by 56 runs (D/L method) Scorecard
Sun Nov 23: v Sri Lanka A -  Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo - Match abandoned Scorecard
Weds Nov 26: 1st ODI v Sri Lanka - Ranasinghe Premadasa Stadium, Colombo - Sri Lanka won by 25 runs Scorecard
Sat Nov 29: 2nd ODI v Sri Lanka - Ranasinghe Premadasa Stadium, Colombo - Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets Scorecard

Wed Dec 3: 3rd ODI v Sri Lanka - Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Sooriyawewa, Hambantota - England won by 5 wickets Scorecard
Sun Dec 7: 4th ODI v Sri Lanka - Ranasinghe Premadasa Stadium, Colombo - Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets Scorecard
Wed Dec 10: 5th ODI v Sri Lanka - Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy - England won by 5 wickets Scorecard
Sat Dec 13: 6th ODI v Sri Lanka - Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy - Sri Lanka won by 90 runs Scorecard
Tue Dec 16: 7th ODI v Sri Lanka - Ranasinghe Premadasa Stadium, Colombo - Sri Lanka won by 87 runs Scorecard

[Lord Snooty]

Fri Nov 21: v Sri Lanka A - Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo.

England won the first match of the tour and the star of the show was once more Moeen Ali. The bearded wonder took three wickets for 29 in his 9 overs of a rain hit match that was eventually decided by Ducky Lewis. But then he starred in his new role as opening batsman. Cooky took the first over and played out a maiden, but then Fernando came on to bowl at Ali and went for 25. Six fours and a wide.
The pair put on 95 for the first wicket and by the time they got to the 25th over when bad light stopped play they were well ahead of the D/L schedule and won by 56 runs.

Scorecard

[themaclad]

The beard to be feared did the job

[Lord Snooty]

Sun Nov 23: v Sri Lanka A -  Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo

And today's match was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Next up, it's the first ODI on Wednesday.

Scorecard

[WakeyTerrier]

Bloody typical, couldn't they have played over Xmas and then I could've taken a few games in.

[Lord Snooty]

Sri Lanka v England

The 1st ODI match
Wednesday November 26th
at Ranasinghe Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
starting at 14:30 local time, 09:00 GMT.

It's rainy season in Sri Lanka and the forecast for this first match of the series of seven is thunderstorms. Well thunderstorms early on, but not much later on, so maybe possibly a reduced overs match, if they can get cleared up sufficiently to get a game in.

If they do, England are likely to be without Steven Finn, who has a groin injury. They are also likely to go without the explosive opening bat of Alex Hales, instead preferring Moeen Ali, who performed brilliantly in the only warm up match played prior to the series. He also offers the team an extra bowling option, which he also did well in that warm up game. Ian Bell will probably bat at 3, with Joe Root at 4 and Eoin Morgan at 5, with big hitting wicketkeeper Jos Buttler in next.
The pace attack is looking very second string without James Anderson and Stuart Broad and now Finn. Chris Jordan, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Harry Gurney all know they will have to bowl well to stick around for the World Cup in February.

Sri Lanka come into the game on the back of a 5-0 hammering in India recently, maybe not as bad as it sounds as the team were under prepared, being a last minute replacement for the West Indies, who had abandoned their tour mid way through.

Despite their poor form they still have names that will strike fear into the English players, such as Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Rangana Herath and the skipper, Angelo Mathews.


England squad: Alastair Cook ©, Moeen Ali, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Jos Buttler (w), Steven Finn, Harry Gurney, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Eoin Morgan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes.

Sri Lanka squad: Angelo Mathews ©, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kusal Perera, Kumar Sangakkara (w), Mahela Jayawardena, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeevan Mendis, Thilina Kandamby, Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera, Ajantha Mendis, Shaminda Eranga, Dhammika Prasad, Thisara Perera, Lahiru Gamage.

Scorecard

[Lord Snooty]

SL 200-2 in the 37th over.

[Lord Snooty]

317-6 (50)

---

What happened to the rain?

---

Cook given out twice in the first over and both reprieved on review.

[Lord Snooty]

Hundred for Moeen but there's five wickets down. Think it will be all over by the time I get home.

[themaclad]

Bet you it won't unless you get home at midnight