Sam Billings effects an unbelievable run out from deep as SL batsmen look to run two

Sam Billings might have failed to star with the bat but he did succeed in making a tremendous impact on the field with his livewire performance to effect a brilliant run-out during the first ODI between England, and, Sri Lanka that was played at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le Street on Tuesday.

England vs Sri Lanka: Sam Billings effects a brilliant run-out

The incident happened in the 43rd over of the first innings that was bowled by youngster Sam Curran. On the third delivery of that over, Chamika Karunaratne nudged the ball to deep mid-wicket and ran the first one hard, and completed it as well. However, the batsmen then set off for a risky second run which was never on, and while Karunaratne made it safely to the keeper's end, his batting partner Praveen Jayawickrama who was running towards the danger end was not so lucky as he was well short of his crease after Billings' throw found its mark. 

That turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for the visitors as they were bundled out for a paltry 185 even before the completion of their allotted quota of 50 overs.

The video was posted by England Cricket on their official Twitter handle. Watch it here.

England vs Sri Lanka: Eoin Morgan & Co. draw first blood

Coming back to the contest, apart from captain Kusal Perera (73), and, Wanindu Hasaranga (54) none of the Sri Lankan batsmen could make any impact with the bat as the rest of the batting line-up excluding Chamika Karunaratne (19) could not even breach double figures.

In reply, the reigning ODI world champions got off to a good start with openers Liam Livingstone and wicket-keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow adding 54 runs for the opening stand. England would then go on to lose skipper Eoin Morgan and Sam Billings cheaply but Joe Root ensured that there were no further hiccups in the middle-order for his side after all-rounder Moeen Ali's dismissal for 28, he successfully anchored the English chase as the Morgan & Co. registered a convincing five-wicket win to go 1-0 up in the three-match series.