Sam Curran turned around his otherwise tough day with the ball with a hat-trick in the first T20I against Sri Lanka today in Pallekele. He went for 20 runs in an over earlier in the innings before he stormed back into the contest in the penultimate over of the innings with a hat-trick. He dismissed Dasun Shanaka, Maheesh Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana off consecutive deliveries to leave Sri Lanka reeling.
The all-rounder showcased his death bowling skills in the 17-over per side game to become only the second England bowler to account for a hat-trick in the shortest format of the game. Chris Jordan was the first England bowler to do so against the USA in the T20 World Cup in 2024. Moreover, Curran is the sixth bowler to pick up a hat-trick vs Sri Lanka in T20Is.
Bowlers to pick up a hat-trick vs Sri Lanka in T20Is
Jacob Oram (New Zealand) in 2009
Faheem Ashraf (Pakistan) in 2017-18
Mohammad Hasnain (Pakistan) in 2019-20
Kartik Meiyappan (UAE) in 2022-23
Lockie Ferguson (New Zealand) in 2024-25
Sam Curran (England) in 2026
Sri Lanka restricted to 133 runs
As far as the match is concerned, after opting to bowl first, England did well to restrict Sri Lanka to just 133 runs in the rain-affected match. The hosts got off to a flyer as they scored 76 runs in seven overs, courtesy of a 37-run knock from Kusal Mendis off just 20 balls. However, Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson picked up five wickets between them to leave the hosts reeling.
Jamie Overton also did his job well, accounting for two wickets before Curran cleaned up the tail in the penultimate over of the innings. Sri Lanka were 76/1 at one stage but collapsed to 98/6 and could never recover to post only 133 runs on the board. As for Curran, he had conceded 35 runs in his first two overs, but ended with figures of 3/38 eventually, thanks to the hat-trick he picked.
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