By Sheldan Keay
Despite a good start, England lost the first Twenty20 match to Sri Lanka after collasping from 95-2 after 10 overs to 136-9 after 20 overs. It will be a huge blow to captain Stuart Broad, who was leading out England for the first time in his career.
England were criticised before the match for their failure to include several high profile names such as Ian Bell in the squad for the Twenty20 game, but initially it appeared that England would be fine without them. After a poor start where England lost Michael Lumb for 2 and Craig Kieswetter for 4, Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan steadied the ship on their way to both men nearly reaching their half centuries. However after losing both men in quick succession, the rest of England's order could only make a combined 35, to leave Sri Lanka needing 137 runs to win the match.
England got off to a good start in their bowling efforts, with England debutant Jade Dernbach taking the wicket of Sanath Jayasuriya for 8 in the 4th over. But Sri Lanka didn't look back from there, and eased their way to a 9 wicket victory with just under 4 overs to spare, with Mahela Jayawardena hitting 72, and Kumar Sangakkara hitting 43. Sri Lanka looked impressive throughout the match, both in their bowling and their batting, however it is up to debate whether or not Sri Lanka were that good or if England were that bad.
Several England players failed to impress, with Samit Patel being cheaply run out for 0 on his return to the side. Stuart Broad also dissapointed with the bad, and also went for a duck after 3 balls. Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright were England's opening partnership at the T20 World Cup, and had a brief spell together during the middle order, but Wright could only manage 9 while Bopara briefly impressed with his score of 19. The game got off to a bad start for England from the off set, with Stuart Broad losing the toss in his first match as England captain.
All in all, England were looking promising before a middle order collaspe handed Sri Lanka the victory, despite being Twenty20 world champions, this lacklustre performance will give England little confidence heading in to their one day internationals with Sri Lanka, where the team will once again be altered, causing more disrupt in the England camp.
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