Sri Lanka produced a clinical all-round performance to defeat the reigning champions, England by 8 wickets in their ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 encounter played at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Thursday.
Reporting from Bangalore, India
This is Sri Lanka’s fifth straight win over England in Men’s ODI World Cups. England’s last win came in 1999. With this defeat, England’s chances of qualifying to the semi-finals are almost over. They have now lost 4 games out of their 5 matches.
Sri Lanka move to the 5th position in the points table with 2 wins and 3 losses to keep their semi-final hopes alive.
Lahiru Kumara and Angelo Mathews, the two changes made by Sri Lanka for this clash, excelled with the ball as England were bowled out for 156 runs with 100 balls remaining.
Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama scored half-centuries to make short work of the run-chase as Sri Lanka reached the target in the 26th over. Nissanka reached his fourth consecutive half-century in the tournament whilst Samarawickrama registered his 7th ODI half-century. With the ball for Sri Lanka, Mathews bowled a solid spell of 5 overs, taking 2 wickets and giving away only 14 runs. Kumara took 3 wickets for 35 runs off his 7 overs.
Despite Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis being dismissed early making it 23 for 2, Nissanka and Samarawicrkama put the bad balls away and guided Sri Lanka to a convincing win.
Having opted to bat first, England’s innings went nowhere as Sri Lanka showed excellent body language on the field and executed their plans brilliantly.
Earlier, Sri Lanka missed reviewing the very first ball of the match when Jonny Bairstow hit the pad before the ball hit the bat when Dilshan Madushanka bowled a great inswinging yorker, but they opted not to review.
Dawid Malan and Bairstow looked dangerous as they added 45 runs in no time. Angelo Mathews, coming into the squad as an injury replacement, was asked to bowl the 7th over, having not bowled in ODIs in three and half years. He struck immediately in the 3rd ball of his spell when Malan was caught behind.
A couple of overs later, Joe Root was stranded down the wicket when Mathews got him short of the crease to inflict a crucial run-out. England were 2 down for 59 runs at the end of the first powerplay.
Bairstow holed out at mid-on as Rajitha, who came back for his second spell got the 3rd wicket of the innings.
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Lahiru Kumara bowled a stunning first spell – 4 overs, gave away 16 runs, and picked up 2 wickets. First, he bowled a 144kmph delivery on a good length which Buttler edged behind. His second wicket came when Liam Livingstone was caught plumb in front as the defending champions were 5 down for 85 runs.
As Ben Stokes commenced to counterattack the Lankan bowlers along with Moeen Ali, Mathews was brought into the attack again and he immediately struck when Ali hit it straight to cover point.
Sadeera Samarawickrama took a brilliant low catch at cover point as Chris Woakes had to walk back without troubling the scores much.
Lahiru Kumara got the prized scalp of Ben Stokes, who hit a short ball straight to deep mid-wicket. Stokes was England’s top scorer with a fighting 43.
Kusal Mendis, showed great presence when he fired in a throw from behind the stumps and caught Adil Rashid short of his crease at the non-striker’s end. Mendis soon whipped off the bails to dismiss last man Mark Wood to finish the innings as Maheesh Theekshana picked up the last wicket.
Sri Lanka’s next game will be against Afghanistan in Pune on the 30th of October. After the Afghanistan clash, Sri Lanka will travel to Mumbai to take on India on the 2nd of November. Sri Lanka’s last two games in the league stage will be against Bangladesh (6th November) in Delhi and New Zealand (9th November) in Bangalore.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonny Bairstow | c Dhananjaya de Silva b Kasun Rajitha | 30 | 31 | 3 | 0 | 96.77 |
| Dawid Malan | c Kusal Mendis b Angelo Mathews | 28 | 25 | 6 | 0 | 112.00 |
| Joe Root | run out (Angelo Mathews) | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 30.00 |
| Ben Stokes | c Dushan Hemantha b Lahiru Kumara | 43 | 73 | 6 | 0 | 58.90 |
| Jos Buttler | c Kusal Mendis b Lahiru Kumara | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 133.33 |
| Liam Livingstone | lbw b Lahiru Kumara | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 16.67 |
| Moeen Ali | c Kusal Perera b Angelo Mathews | 15 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Chris Woakes | c Sadeera Samarawickrama b Kasun Rajitha | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| David Willey | not out | 14 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 82.35 |
| Adil Rashid | run out (Kusal Mendis) | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 28.57 |
| Mark Wood | st Kusal Mendis b Mahesh Theekshana | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 83.33 |
| Extras | 7 (b 0 , lb 3 , nb 0, w 4, pen 0) |
| Total | 156/10 (33.2 Overs, RR: 4.68) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dilshan Madushanka | 5 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 7.40 | |
| Kasun Rajitha | 7 | 0 | 36 | 2 | 5.14 | |
| Mahesh Theekshana | 8.2 | 1 | 21 | 1 | 2.56 | |
| Angelo Mathews | 5 | 1 | 14 | 2 | 2.80 | |
| Lahiru Kumara | 7 | 0 | 35 | 3 | 5.00 | |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10.00 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pathum Nissanka | not out | 77 | 83 | 7 | 2 | 92.77 |
| Kusal Perera | c Ben Stokes b David Willey | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 80.00 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Jos Buttler b David Willey | 11 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 91.67 |
| Sadeera Samarawickrama | not out | 65 | 54 | 7 | 1 | 120.37 |
| Extras | 3 (b 0 , lb 0 , nb 0, w 3, pen 0) |
| Total | 160/2 (23.4 Overs, RR: 6.76) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Woakes | 4 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 4.50 | |
| David Willey | 5 | 0 | 30 | 2 | 6.00 | |
| Adil Rashid | 4.4 | 0 | 39 | 0 | 8.86 | |
| Mark Wood | 4 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 5.75 | |
| Liam Livingstone | 3 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 5.67 | |
| Moeen Ali | 3 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 7.00 | |
England – 156 (33.2 overs) Jonny Bairstow 30, Dawid Malan 28, Ben Stokes 43, Kasun Rajitha 2/36, Angelo Mathews 2/14, Lahiru Kumara 3/35.
Sri Lanka – 160/2 (25.4 overs) Pathum Nissanka 77*, Sadeera Samarawickrama 66*, David Willey 2/30
>> ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 <<
