World Cup: Sri Lanka Heaps More Misery On England

(CTN News) – After crushing the defending champions by eight wickets on Thursday in a low-scoring match, Sri Lanka breathed new life into their World Cup campaign and left England in greater danger of missing out.

In pursuit of a modest 157, Sri Lanka overcame the loss of two early wickets before Pathum Nissanka (77 not out) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (65 not out) guided them to victory in 25.4 overs.

After an initial burst by David Willey (2-30), the pair played with plenty of patience in their 137-run partnership for the third wicket, ensuring England’s third consecutive World Cup defeat.

With the victory, Sri Lanka has climbed to fifth place in the table, while England has climbed to ninth, ahead of only the Netherlands.

In the must-win clash between the tournament’s stragglers, Sri Lanka restricted England to 156 all out in 33.2 overs, with only Ben Stokes providing some resistance.

As England’s middle-order collapsed in the 31st over, Stokes (43) took the attack to Sri Lanka on a dry pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Chennai due to some incisive bowling from the bowlers. It was a hole-out by him off the bowling of Lahiru Kumara (3-35) to Dushan Hemantha in the deep.

“I am very pleased with my performance, and I have worked very hard for it,” Kumara said, before praising returning veteran Angelo Mathews.

” Angelo has a great deal of experience, and he gave me a great deal of assistance at mid-term, and it was so great to have him back.”

It was England’s luck that Jonny Bairstow (30) survived an LBW chance when Sri Lanka failed to review, but he failed to build on his breezy start and gifted his wicket to Kasun Rajitha (2-36) shortly after the toss as Jos Buttler won the toss and chose to bat.

At the end of the powerplay, Sri Lanka put an end to England’s innings as Mathews (2-14) disposed of the opening batsman Dawid Malan (28) and then helped run out Joe Root before Kumara struck twice to end England’s innings at 85-5 after they had reached their powerplay target.

As an injury replacement for Matheesha Pathirana, Mathews snared Moeen Ali in his second spell, while Chris Woakes was caught by Rajitha following a low diving catch by Samarawickrama.

We were committed to hitting the middle overs with discipline. We followed that plan and were rewarded with wickets,” Kumara said.

After a similar record as England – three losses from four games – Sri Lanka ripped through the tail to ensure the lowest all-out total in Bengaluru and lay the foundation for a comprehensive victory.

The tournament has been both extremely difficult and extremely disappointing, according to Buttler.

“I am disappointed in myself and all the boys that we have not shown a good account of ourselves. At the moment there is no clear answer to the question. I cannot fault the boys’ efforts, but we are a long way short of what we are capable of during this period.”

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