Sri Lanka vs England, 3rd ODI - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: England tour of Sri Lanka, 2018 Venue: Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele Date & Time: Oct 17, 02:30 PM LOCAL

Sri Lanka's batting has been poor so far and it has hurt their chances. © Getty

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Post match thoughts -

Morgan: We have certainly improved on our last game. It can't find fault with our bowlers. Tom Curran coming in fresh. Stokes, who didn't bowl much in the series did a magnificent job. Rashid - picking four wickets in a 21 over game, that did hold SL's progress, on a track which was so good to bat on - was a fantastic job. Full credit goes to our bowlers. We learned what worked and what didn't as the game progressed. We bowled slower balls and the cutters really well. We have a aggressive opening partnership. They have full licence to do that. That's the way they play. The wicket was very very good. Really good headaches. Competition for the places is extremely high, which is a healthy atmosphere. The challenge for us is setting challenges for ourselves. The outfield was out, as regards as clean catches - we set good standards.

Thisare Perera: We got good start, but we couldn't continue including myself. We were thinking we have only 21 overs. We were 30-35 runs short. Last few matches, bowling partnership has been good. We got to blame the batsmen. I think he (Chandimal) will be okay for the next match

Rashid: It was nice. It felt good. We bowled exceptionally as a team. It came out nicely today. We get used to it. You have to find a way and I found it. He backs each bowler. He backs me in any situation. He saved me for a couple of overs.

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Hello and welcome to the live blog of the third ODI between Sri Lanka and England in Pallekele. There's a threat of rain but both teams will hope it stays away. England lead the five-match series and will hope for an unassailable lead with one game already washed out. Sri Lanka will hope to bounce back in the series.

England will be forced into a change with all-rounder Liam Dawson having headed home with a right side strain sustained while bowling in England's 31-run victory on DLS method in Damabulla. Kent's Joe Denly has been called-up although he will not be ready for Wednesday's match and Liam Plunkett, who has finally arrived in Sri Lanka following his wedding, is unlikely to play either after precious little acclimatisation time.

Not that it will inconvenience England too much. They have plenty of other options in the squad and they will be confident of another victory after a comfortable win in Dambulla. In contrast, Sri Lanka, who have remarkably lost 31 of their last 41 ODIs, look a team bereft of confidence and one-day depth, just as they did during a poor Asia Cup campaign last month. Their fielding, a good barometer of the health of any team, was extremely poor in Dambulla and their batting wasn't much better.

In particular, the home side need to find a way to combat England's new ball bowlers. Chris Woakes and Olly Stone took four wickets inside the first nine overs of Sri Lanka's innings in the second ODI, effectively ending the match as a contest. While the home side's bowling attack can be dangerous, particularly with Lasith Malinga back to his bamboozling self, their batting has a brittleness about it. In the absence of Angelo Matthews, much rests on captain Dinesh Chandimal.