Sunday Feb 22, 2026
Sunday Feb 22, 2026
Tuesday, 3 February 2026 02:34 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
England’s Tom Banton receives the Player of the Match award
Player of the Match in England’s five-wicket win (DLS method) over Sri Lanka in the second T20I at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, Tom Banton said that the series win was special.
England’s win gave them an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the 3-match series and Banton said, “The main thing was to get a win, and we did that tonight, which was great. To get a series win in Sri Lanka, it was a very special achievement. That was the main aim of tonight, and we got over the line, which was good.”
Sri Lanka had control of the game before the rains arrived and gave England a revised target to chase. Sri Lanka got to 189-5 and when the rains came England were 57-2 in 7.2 overs. The new target for England was 168 in 17 overs.
“There were 10 overs left and a lot of us played T10 cricket, I think it suited us quite nicely. Me and Josh (Jos Buttler) have spoken about giving ourselves a few balls, and with the amount of batting we’ve got, just keep putting the pressure back on them. And yeah, it came off tonight.”
“I think Sri Lanka’s total was a little bit above par. Obviously the wicket was a little bit tacky and slow and a bit of turn there for the spinners. Sri Lanka has got such good spinners. You keep the ball nice and straight and they don’t make it easy for you. A few of us obviously got going. When anyone does so in T20 cricket, it’s quite hard to stop them.”
Banton went on to score 54* off 33 balls to guide England home with two balls to spare.
England needed a cameo knock from someone to get back on track and the captain Harry Brook provided it with 36 off 12 balls.
“He’s pretty special. I’ve known him for a long time now, and are very good friends. To see what he’s done over the last few years in international cricket is pretty crazy. So happy for him,” said Banton. – [ST]
