Brook's Captaincy and Dawson's Bowling Earn England Consolation Win as McCullum Emphasises Lessons

Brendon McCullum believes England will take vital lessons from a chastening tri-series in Pakistan, but the white-ball coach was heartened by his team's resilience and especially by Harry Brook's captaincy after a hard-fought consolation win over Sri Lanka in Lahore. England appeared in serious danger of a fourth successive defeat when they entered the final ten overs of their farewell fixture. They had already lost three matches in a row from positions that had seemed impregnable. Ben Duckett's 167 had helped England set Sri Lanka an imposing target of 387, but Pavan Rathnayake, the hero of Sri Lanka's 430-run chase in Rawalpindi the previous week, once again threatened to take the game away. Sri Lanka reached 300 for 5 after 40 overs and looked well placed to complete another remarkable pursuit. This time, however, England found the breakthroughs that had eluded them at the death in their recent defeats. Liam Dawson was the central figure, finishing with 4 for 49 in ten overs as Sri Lanka's momentum was checked. McCullum said the performance gave him satisfaction because England held their nerve under pressure and took their chances when they arrived. McCullum told Sky Sports: 'It was a very satisfying performance today. We were put under pressure again. We have talked extensively leading into this tri-series about wanting to get experience into some of our guys, because while we have got some talent, we have not got a super-experienced one-day side.' He admitted England had still been behind the game when Sri Lanka were five down. 'We were probably behind the game, to be honest, when they were five-down, but Brooky was able to slow it down, make some plays, and obviously we were able to get the wickets we needed. He would have grown enormously. I cannot talk highly enough of his captaincy, not just his tactics, but also his leadership.' McCullum described Brook as one of the best tactical captains he has come across. 'He has got such an astute brain. He wears his intelligence lightly externally, but he is a very, very switched-on man and a very, very switched-on cricketer. And he has got the respect of the entire dressing room.' The coach added that Brook's leadership is interactive rather than isolated. 'He leads them. They follow him. He is interactive with his leadership. It is not just him out there on his own. He does call upon many other people as well. He will have learned a lot from getting thrust into a situation like this, where the game is travelling at breakneck speed, and you are having to make decisions which can win or lose a game.' McCullum said England were gutted not to have a chance of reaching the final, especially after Sri Lanka's win over Pakistan on Monday ended any mathematical possibility. But he insisted the team remains on track for the 50-over World Cup in South Africa next year. England will travel to Australia later this week for a warm-up match against Western Australia and then three more ODIs. 'We will sit back and assess what we got right, and what we did not quite get right, and how we can keep getting better,' McCullum said. 'We want to be a team that can challenge seriously for that World Cup in 12 months' time, and we know we need to get better, but we will, and I am sure we will learn from these lessons. This experience has been very good for us, albeit it has been disappointing in terms of not making the final.' There were individual positives. Brook made a career-best 202 against Sri Lanka, Duckett scored back-to-back hundreds in the final two games, and Tom Banton struck three fifties at the top of the order. Dawson's seven wickets at 21.42 were also notable, particularly as he was preferred to England's senior spinner Adil Rashid, who was omitted for the final three games. McCullum said Dawson had done really well and acknowledged that left-arm spin had been a consistent threat across the tournament. Pakistan's Arafat Minhas topped the averages with nine wickets at 16.11. 'If you look at all three teams, legspin has not really played too much of a role, and we want to be a team that can adapt to different conditions, and be quite malleable with our selections,' McCullum said. 'Dawson is an experienced and highly competitive player who has put his hand up here, and unfortunately for Rash on this occasion, the conditions probably went against him.' The final win does not erase England's broader shortcomings in the series, but it does provide a measure of encouragement. Brook's captaincy, Dawson's control and Duckett's run-scoring combined to give England a consolation victory. The challenge now is to turn that performance into consistency as the build-up to the World Cup continues.