Sri Lanka shock England with 20-run defeat
ICC Men’s cricket World Cup at Headingly, Leeds.
England Vs Sri Lanka
England 212 ao (47ov) Root 57 off 89, 3 fours, Stokes 82* off 89, 7 fours, 4 sixes, Moeen 16 off 20, 1 six. Malinga 4-43, Dhananjaya 3-32, Udana 2-41, Pradeep 1-38.
Sri Lanka 232-9 Avishka Fernando 49 off 39, 6 fours, 2 sixes, Kusal Mendis 46 off 68, 2 fours, Mathews 85* off 115, 5 fours, 1 six, Dhananjaya 29 off 4=7, 1 four, Archer 3-52, Wood 3- 40, Rashid 2-45, Woakes 1-22.
Sri Lanka win by 20 runs
England were shocked into a 20-run defeat by Sri Lanka that dentged their hopes of reaching the World cup semi-finals.
Chasing 233 on an increasingly difficult pitch, the hosts were mesmerised by Sri Lanka’s amazing bowling performance in a compelling contest at Headingly, Leeds.
England side which hit 25 sixes in the previous game against Afghanistan, were shocked as they failed to adapt in difficult batting conditions.
England had to blame themselves as they engineered their own downfall when Ben Stokes was joined by last man Mark Wood, England still needed 47, but Stokes clubbed 23 from eight deliveries and Wood edged Nuwan Pradeep behind to leave Stoke stranded on 82 no out with England 212 all out and all their efforts in vain.
James Vince, Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow and Jos Bulter all fell to Slingly Lasith Malinga who claimed 4-43.
Earlier England had restricted Sri Lanka to 232-9 with Angelo Mathews’ 85 proving a match-winning innings.
England go down to 3rd position with 8 points from 6 games
Sri Lanka climb to fifth only two points behind England and keep their hopes of reaching semi-finals still alive as an outside chance.
England captain Eoin Morgan said “ In the chase we didn’t do the basics of getting susbstantial partnerships going. We had a couple of good individual performances but Sri Lanka thoroughly deserved to win. We didn’t do enough to win the game and even if we had nicked it then it would have seen us robbing the game with an outstanding individual performance”.
Sri Lanka Captain Dimuth Karunaratne said “ It was a close one, we were under pressure but it was teamwork in the end- all the batters and bowlers did great work. We thought this wicket looked like a 300 pitch but it was slower than we thought. We knew we couldn’t get 300, so wanted 250-275 until we lost some wickets but Angelo Mathews batted very well With the score on the board the bowlers knew what to do on this wicket”.