Tom Banton's fastest fifty and Liam Dawson's spin sink Sri Lanka as England's T20 hex stretches to 14
England extended their extraordinary hex over Sri Lanka to a 14th successive match as Tom Banton's six-hitting and Liam Dawson's mid-innings strikepower secured a six-wicket win in the second T20 international in Cardiff — a victory that wrapped up the series with a game to spare.
More than a dozen years have passed since Sri Lanka — crowned world champions in the format barely a month earlier — beat England by nine runs at the Oval. They have lost every meeting since, and with the tourists repeatedly depositing the ball into the River Taff rather than clearing the boundary themselves, the outcome was never seriously in doubt.
England won the toss and chose to chase, and the decision was validated almost immediately. After five overs Sri Lanka's openers, Lahiru Udara — bumped up a spot — and Pathum Nissanka had raced to 55 without loss, but the innings then unravelled with startling speed: the tourists managed just 90 for nine from the remaining 15 overs, with the final four yielding a dismal 12 runs for the loss of four wickets.
Dawson pulls the plug
It was Dawson who initially derailed them. Udara, having made 21 from 20 balls, drove high to mid-on, where any fielder other than the 6ft 5in Jamie Overton might have clawed at thin air — the tall seamer instead nonchalantly plucked the ball out of the sky. Kamil Mishara then miscued his first delivery straight back to the bowler, and although the tourists attempted to rebuild, they simply crumbled. Sonny Baker, continuing his fine form from the series opener, bowled two of the final four overs, the last of them a wicket maiden.
Sri Lanka's bowling coach, Ryan van Niekerk, had estimated par on the pitch at 200; England's target of 146 told its own story about the gulf between the sides.
Banton's boundary blitz
The disparity in batting quality and power was most obvious in the six-hitting. Only two Sri Lankans managed to clear the rope, and none more than once — Banton doubled their collective tally on his own en route to his fifth and fastest fifty in T20 cricket. Harry Brook added three maximums from just eight balls, including three monstrous back-foot shots over midwicket in a single Wanindu Hasaranga over, before attempting a fourth. It took a superb sprinting, diving catch by Eshan Malinga to end the cameo — Brook's first dismissal in the format since early July, four innings in which he had plundered a mere 311 runs, including an epic unbeaten century in Tuesday's opener at Southampton.
England tracked Sri Lanka closely early in the reply, also reaching 55 after five overs, though Aneurin Donald — born in Swansea and originally of Glamorgan but now of Derbyshire — mis-hit successive Eshan Malinga deliveries, the second finding Hasaranga at mid-on. Jos Buttler's wild slash then ended an innings of 30 from 16 balls, but not before he had become the first man to pass 15,000 runs in T20 cricket. The win was eventually sealed in slapdash style — no-ball, wide, single, wide, single, muted celebration — with 47 balls to spare.
"We've just got match-winners throughout," said Dawson. "You look at our class and power with the bat, not many teams have that destructiveness. We've got some freaks in our team."
"They were too good," admitted Sri Lanka's captain, Charith Asalanka. "We have to improve a lot, honestly, because we are not up to the mark right now."
Streak shows no sign of ending
This was England's 19th win in their last 21 T20s and their 14th consecutive victory over Sri Lanka. Under Brook's captaincy they have been beaten just once — in a rain-ruined five-over shootout against South Africa at this ground last September. They have never gone unbeaten through a summer featuring more than two T20s, but Saturday's finale at Old Trafford, their eighth of 2026 with five of those against India's world champions, offers another chance — and on this evidence they do not look like stumbling any time soon.