Sonny Baker's Ruthless Spell Secures Sri Lanka's Collapse
Sonny Baker slams the door on Sri Lanka’s chase with a spell that never really loosened its grip.
The young quick finished the job in ruthless fashion, removing Dilshan Madushanka for a five-ball duck to bowl Sri Lanka out for 124. It was an ending that felt inevitable by the time Baker marked out his run for the 19th over.
Madushanka had survived four balls, just. A full toss at 141kph thudded into the pad via an inside edge. A back-of-a-length ball in the channel was met with a tentative defensive prod. Another length ball on middle and off cramped him as he tried to free his arms. Then a fourth straight dot, toe-ending a cut down the pitch as Baker kept him pinned and guessing.
The pressure finally cracked him.
Baker went fuller, straight at the stumps. Madushanka cleared his front leg and swung across the line, desperate to break free. Instead, he found only a leading edge. The ball hung in the air long enough for Harry Brook at mid-off to stroll in, settle his feet and close his fingers around the catch. Madushanka gone for 0 off 5, Sri Lanka gone for 124, and Baker with the final say.
This wasn’t a one-over cameo. From his first ball, Baker set a tone that Sri Lanka never fully escaped.
He opened up against Pathum Nissanka and Lahiru Udara, mixing heavy lengths with late movement. Nissanka’s first scoring shot came from a hard-length delivery seaming in from outside off, steered neatly past short third for four. It looked authoritative, almost a statement. But Baker’s response was to keep hammering that same awkward length, dragging Nissanka across his crease and forcing him to play.
Nissanka tried to stand tall and punch through the off side, only to pick out cover-point. He pushed back at full deliveries that swung in on off, Baker half-stopping one on his follow-through, never letting the batter feel settled. A skiddy 144kph back-of-a-length ball jagged in on off, and Nissanka could do no more than open the face and guide it to gully for a single. One over, one wicket in the bank, and just two runs conceded — the sort of early squeeze that shifts an innings off course.
Udara, for a brief moment, looked like the one who might break that hold. He punched Baker through the off side for a couple of boundaries in his 10 off 7, trying to impose himself. Then came the misjudgment.
Baker went hard length, outside off. Udara went after it, aiming to drag the pull over mid-wicket. He only managed a top-edge that ballooned behind the wicket. Jos Buttler, never out of the contest, turned and sprinted back. The ball swirled in the wind, threatening to drift away from him. Buttler adjusted, moved slightly to his left, held his nerve and cupped it cleanly. A high-class catch, and another breakthrough credited to Baker’s relentlessness.
From there, Sri Lanka’s innings flickered in moments rather than built in phases.
Nissanka produced one shot that cut through the gloom — a superb six off Baker. Walking down the track to a fuller ball swinging in from outside off, he whipped it with a strong bottom hand over deep backward square leg. It flew with the wind, a reminder of his timing and power. But even that strike felt like a counterpunch rather than a shift in control.
Baker just came back harder. Full, fast, into the pitch, always asking a question.
Kamil Mishara found him equally unforgiving. A skiddy 135kph ball on a back-of-a-length line shaped in on leg, and Mishara could only tuck it off the hip for a single. Anything looser in line was still tight in length, forcing hops, blocks, and mistimed nudges into the leg-side ring. The scoreboard rarely moved at the rate Sri Lanka needed.
When Baker returned at the death, the pattern repeated. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Then the wicket. A bowler in complete control of his method, if not yet of the wider narrative that will grow around him.
Brook, who had earlier flung himself to his right at mid-off to save a certain boundary from a crisp Nissanka drive, finished the innings with the simplest of takes. Buttler, who had already shown his class with that swirling catch to dismiss Udara, watched on as his young quick closed out a performance built on pace, discipline and nerve.
Sri Lanka’s 124 looked light from the moment Baker found his rhythm. The real question now is how often he can produce this kind of spell when the stakes rise and the spotlight burns even brighter.
