Sri Lanka breathed life into their World Cup marketing campaign and left England in rising hazard of lacking out on a semi-final spot after crushing the defending champions by eight wickets in a low-scoring match on Thursday.
Chasing a modest 157 for less than their second win, Sri Lanka overcame the lack of two early wickets earlier than Pathum Nissanka (77 not out) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (65 not out) acquired them throughout the end line in 25.four overs.
The pair performed with loads of endurance of their 137-run partnership for the third wicket after an preliminary burst by David Willey (2-30) to make sure England suffered a 3rd straight World Cup defeat for the primary time since 2015.
The win lifted Sri Lanka to fifth within the desk whereas England are ninth, forward of solely the Netherlands.
Sri Lanka earlier restricted England to a below-par 156 all out in 33.2 overs within the must-win conflict between the match’s stragglers, with solely Ben Stokes providing some resistance in an in any other case dismal batting show.
Stokes (43) took the assault to Sri Lanka on a dry wicket on the M Chinnaswamy Stadium after England’s middle-order collapsed within the face of some incisive bowling, however he holed out to Dushan Hemantha within the deep off Lahiru Kumara (3-35) within the 31st over.
“I am very proud of my efficiency, I’ve labored actually exhausting for it,” stated man of the match Kumara, earlier than heaping reward on returning veteran Angelo Mathews for his affect.
“Angelo has a variety of expertise, he helped me lots at mid-off. It was actually nice to have him again.
England loved an early slice of luck after Jos Buttler received the toss and opted to bat as Jonny Bairstow (30) survived an lbw likelihood when Sri Lanka didn’t overview, however he didn’t construct on his breezy begin and gifted his wicket to Kasun Rajitha (2-36).
Sri Lanka had put the brakes on England’s scoring following the powerplay as Mathews (2-14) first removed opening batsman Dawid Malan (28) after which helped run out Joe Root earlier than Kumara struck twice to depart the holders in tatters at 85-5.
Mathews, known as in to play in his fourth World Cup as an damage substitute for Matheesha Pathirana, snared Moeen Ali in his second spell whereas Chris Woakes fell to Rajitha after a low diving catch by Samarawickrama.
“The plan was to hit the center overs with self-discipline, we caught to it and had been rewarded with wickets,” Kumara stated.
Sri Lanka, who got here into the competition with the identical document as England – three losses in 4 matches – then ripped via the tail to make sure the bottom all-out whole in Bengaluru and lay the platform for a complete victory.
“It has been an extremely robust and extremely disappointing match,” stated Buttler.
“Disillusioned in myself and all of the boys that we’ve not proven a superb account of ourselves. There is no clear reply in the meanwhile. Cannot actually fault the boys’ efforts, however we’re taking part in a great distance wanting our greatest.”