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Sachindu Colombage was playing club cricket for Downham Stow in the East Anglian Premier League last summer. On Tuesday at Chester-le-Street he removed Joe Root, Jos Buttler and Jamie Overton, bowled his full ten overs for 3-44, and became the reason England were bowled out for 265 in the first one-day international against Sri Lanka.
The 28-year-old legspinner, uncapped and largely unknown outside Sri Lanka’s domestic circuit until a strong Lanka Premier League campaign earned him a call-up, arrived at the Riverside as the least heralded name on either team sheet. He left it with the two biggest wickets of the innings and a share of the credit for turning England from 182-3 into a side that could not survive its 50 overs.
A debut spell that broke England’s middle
England won the toss, chose to bat, and moved at close to six an over through the first half of the innings. Ben Duckett made 32, Root 44 — passing 23,000 international runs in the process, the eighth batter to do so — and Harry Brook looked set for far more than the 67 he finished with. At 182-3 a total north of 320 was the obvious projection.
Colombage was the man who removed that projection. Bowling into a pitch where the ball was not coming on, he trapped Buttler lbw for 31 and accounted for Root, two dismissals that flattened the acceleration England had built. Overton followed. That England’s most experienced ODI batter and their most destructive one both fell to a debutant’s legspin, on a ground where England have historically scored heavily, is the statistic Sri Lanka will take back to the dressing room.
He was not alone. Asitha Fernando returned 3-53, finishing the innings with a yorker that bowled last man Josh Tongue for a duck with 11 balls unused. But Fernando is a Test-hardened seamer doing what he is paid to do. Colombage is a player who was bowling in England last year in a league most international cricketers have never heard of.
England lose seven for 83 — and lose Rashid too
From 182-3, England lost their last seven wickets for 83 runs. Will Jacks salvaged something with 46 not out, but the tail offered nothing and Brook’s 67 was the innings’ only half-century. On a surface that rewarded patience over power, England’s default setting — attack first, recalibrate later — cost them the platform their top order had built.
The context matters. England arrived at Chester-le-Street having swept the T20 series 3-0 and returned to the top of the T20I rankings. The 50-over side is a different, less settled proposition, and it is operating this series without Adil Rashid, ruled out of all three matches with a bowling-hand injury. Losing your best wrist-spinner and then watching the opposition’s debutant wrist-spinner take the game’s decisive wickets is an uncomfortable symmetry.
- England 265 all out (48.1 overs) — Brook 67, Jacks 46*, Root 44, Duckett 32, Buttler 31
- Colombage 10-0-44-3 — Root, Buttler, Overton
- Asitha Fernando 3-53
- England lost 7-83 after reaching 182-3
What it means from here
Sri Lanka’s reply was in trouble at the time of writing — 104-5 in the 26th over, needing 162 from 24.1 — which is the reminder that a debut spell and a match-winning performance are not the same thing. If Sri Lanka lose from here, Colombage’s figures become a footnote in another England win rather than the story of an upset.
But the selection logic is vindicated regardless of the result. Sri Lanka’s white-ball rebuild has leaned on identifying late developers from the domestic and franchise game rather than cycling the same names, and Colombage is the clearest return on that approach: a 28-year-old with no international pedigree, thrown straight at Root and Buttler, who took both.
For England, the second ODI at Headingley on Thursday is now a question about method. They have a batting order capable of 350 and a habit of not building toward it when conditions ask them to. Without Rashid, and with Sri Lanka having found a spinner who can bowl ten overs at the top of England’s order, the margin for that habit has narrowed.
Colombage returns to Downham Stow’s honours board either way. Few club cricketers get to put Joe Root and Jos Buttler on it in the same afternoon.
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**Sources:** [ESPNcricinfo match report](https://www.cricinfo.com/series/sri-lanka-in-england-2026-1496567/england-vs-sri-lanka-1st-odi-1496588/match-report) · [ESPNcricinfo live score](https://www.cricinfo.com/series/sri-lanka-in-england-2026-1496567/england-vs-sri-lanka-1st-odi-1496588/live-cricket-score) · [Yahoo Sports / AP](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/england-wins-toss-bats-first-120331422.html) · [theScore](https://www.thescore.com/news/3606011/sri-lankas-colombage-strikes-on-debut-as-england-dismissed-for-265-in-first-odi)
One editorial note: the match was still live when I verified — Sri Lanka were 104-5 chasing 266. The article is written to stand as a live report; if the chase has since finished, the final section needs a one-line result update before publishing.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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