England have sealed victory in their series with Sri Lanka, after a win in the second ODI at the Oval.
The hosts have it secured with a match still to play, thanks to a comprehensive 8 wicket win.
Sam Curran took his first ever 5 wicket haul and there were 50s from opener Jason Roy, Joe Root and Eoin Morgan to see England home comfortably.
Sri Lanka got off to the worst possible start, after Eoin Morgan won the toss and sent them into bat.
The tourists quickly found themselves 21-4 within seven overs, as Sam Curran took three wickets in his first three overs, including captain Kusal Perera for a two ball duck.
David Willey took the other, after Charith Asalanka spooned the ball up to sub fielder George Garton.
Image: Ben Sutherland
Sri Lanka were in real danger of being bowled out before all of the 14,000 spectators could even make it into the ground, but were luckily anchored by a superb innings by Dhananjaya de Silva.
The 29-year-old produced a fightback, with help from leg spinner Wanindu Hasaranga (26) and later Dasun Shanaka (47) to help recover the game.
De Silva finishing agonisingly close to a century, as he was caught by Test captain Joe Root off the bowling of Yorkshire teammate David Willey for 91 runs.
Tailenders Chamika Karunaratne, Binura Fernando and Dushmantha Chameera helped Sri Lanka to a more respectable total, with 21, 17, 14* respectively but the tourists still limped home after 50 overs with just 241-9.
Nine wickets were taken by left hand seamers, the most for England in an ODI.
Sam Curran finished on 5-48, whilst David Willey finished on 4-64.
With just 242 to chase, Eoin Morgan and his men would’ve expected a fairly routine chase and steady innings from their top order made sure of this.
Openers Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy set up a platform with a first wicket stand of 76, before Bairstow chopped on to his stumps trying a cut shot to spinner Hasaranga, for 29 runs (36).
Roy followed his opening partner back to the pavilion 5 overs later, as he was dismissed by a brilliant diving catch from Dhananjaya, trying to hit a ball from Karunaratne through the leg side.
Roy who made 60 runs (52) looked in disbelief as he walked off, no doubt ruing the wasted opportunity for a 100.
Image: Naparazzi
Captain Eoin Morgan and Joe root saw their side home, as they calmly saw out the rest of the innings with no real urgency, to get England to the target with 7 overs to go.
The pair batted intelligently to get scores of 75* (83) and 67* (87) respectively and unbroken partnership of 140.
Morgan sealed the victory with a pull to the backward square leg boundary.
His England side will now look to the final ODI, in Bristol, on Sunday.
Feature image: Tmx468
