Will Jacks Sparks England's ODI Win Over Sri Lanka
Harry Brook had talked about “high-octane” cricket. This was something else entirely. No fireworks, no frenzy, no blur of sixes into the stands. Instead, England took the long way round at Chester-le-Street, feeling their way across a tired September surface before Will Jacks ripped the game away from Sri Lanka with ball in hand.
Bowled out for 265 in 48.1 overs, England looked light. Brook’s 67 under clear skies was the top score, a captain’s innings that promised a surge but never quite broke free. Yet Sri Lanka, set 266, never truly felt close. They folded for 176, England’s attack strangling the chase to secure a 1-0 lead heading into Thursday’s second ODI at Headingley.
This was Brook’s 11th win as ODI captain, nudging his record into the black after 10 defeats and quietly extending England’s revival in the format. The volume will have to rise over the next year with a World Cup looming, but this was a reminder: they can still win ugly.
Jacks owns the day
On a day that rarely crackled, Jacks provided the electricity.
His unbeaten 46 from the lower middle order, including 18 plundered from the 48th over, changed the shape of England’s innings. Without it, Sri Lanka would have been chasing far less and smelling opportunity. Since accepting a role away from his preferred top-three slot last year, Jacks has averaged 43 in ODIs at better than a run a ball. Those are frontline numbers, not a makeshift plug-in.
Then came the ball.
Seven overs. Five for 22. Angles, changes of pace, genuine spin. He removed Dunith Wellalage, Sri Lanka’s top-scorer with 45, and repeatedly knocked the stuffing out of the chase. Only Vic Marks, with five for 20 against New Zealand in Wellington in 1984, has better ODI figures for an England spinner.
Brook was clear about what he has.
“[Jacks] is not a part-timer, he’s a very good off-spinner,” he said. “He can spin the ball big and contain. He could have moaned and groaned about playing as an all-rounder but he’s accepted that and become a very vital player for us over the past 18 months. He’s a very good leader, with bat, ball and in the field.”
This is England’s new vice-captain, and he played like it.
A total that felt bigger than it looked
WinViz made Sri Lanka slight favourites at the interval. The pitch disagreed.
England had reached 61 for one in the powerplay, Tom Banton bowled by a beauty from Asitha Fernando, and then the surface began to show its age. Strokeplay lost its fluency. Timing went missing. The ball gripped just enough to turn ambition into risk.
What really dragged England back, though, was a sparkling debut from Sachindu Colombage. The 28-year-old wrist-spinner, with a jerky, deceptive action, took three for 44 and left a deep impression. Last summer he was turning out for Downham Stow in the East Anglian Premier League, his domestic numbers unremarkable. Gary Kirsten looked past them and liked what he saw: drift, dip, and the kind of late movement that troubles good players.
He was right. Joe Root, on an extraordinary run in ODIs, heard his off stump rattled on 44, beaten on the back foot. Jos Buttler, on 31, was pinned lbw by one that straightened. Later, Jamie Overton was beaten by a leg-break that climbed above his eyeline and ripped sharply past his bat.
Root’s dismissal in the 23rd over ended a remarkable streak: 416 balls without being dismissed in ODIs, a run of 404 runs stretching back to England’s 2-1 series win in Sri Lanka last winter. Yet the wicket that really shifted the mood was Brook’s.
He had looked set, almost anchored, until he charged Dushmantha Chameera for one of his trademark inside-out drives and miscued to deep point. It was one of the very few times England tried to clear the rope in what became their first ODI innings in more than seven years without a single six.
Brook’s exit sparked a collapse: four wickets for 29 runs in 46 balls. From 182 for three to 211 for seven, the innings sagged. Buttler fell. Rehan Ahmed was run out by a sharp direct hit from Charith Asalanka after setting off for a single that was never there, stalling mid-pitch and effectively surrendering. Kevin Pietersen, brought in as a mentor, had stressed the need for better strike rotation. This was the opposite.
Jacks stayed. With support from Gus Atkinson, he dragged England to something workable. Not imposing. Just enough.
Sri Lanka smothered
The chase never really breathed.
Familiarity with the conditions helped England. The toss helped too. Sri Lanka, batting second on a wearing pitch, found their shots sticking in the surface and their options narrowing quickly.
Brook’s attack did the rest. Jofra Archer, at the end of his all-format summer, took some punishment late on, but the collective effort suffocated Sri Lanka. Overton’s cross-seamers brought two wickets, the seamers kept a tight leash, and the absence of Adil Rashid – ruled out of the series with a hand injury – barely registered.
Jacks kept coming. Over after over, he punched holes in the innings, his variations too much for a lineup that never settled. When he bowled Dilshan Madushanka with a ripping delivery to claim his first five-wicket haul in international cricket, the contest was long over. It was a fitting finish: the all-rounder who had rescued the total also slamming the door on the chase.
England had defended a sub-300 score in ODIs for the first time since 2022. Not with the swagger of their peak years, not with the bat-dominated chaos that once defined them, but with control, nous and an emerging leader at the heart of it.
The World Cup cycle is already ticking. If this is the quieter version of England, the question is simple: how loud can they get once the stakes rise?
