CWC2023: Sri Lanka shock England by 8 wickets , keeps slight hopes of SF alive

 



World champions England have stumbled further as they scored a hat trick of defeats in this World Cup.  After Afghanistan and South Africa, this time they also lost to Sri Lanka.  Sri Lanka showed skills  with bat and ball in the Bangalore field.  England had a poor day .  England lost four of the first five matches of the World Cup.  As a result, it has become almost impossible for them to go to the semi-finals.



 Buttler won the toss and decided to bat first.  The start was not that bad.  Two openers Jonny Bairstow and David Malan scored 45 runs as the opening pair.  Angelo Mathews gave England the first blow.  He made use of his experience when he played for Sri Lanka for the first time in this World Cup.  Malan was dismissed for 28 runs  caught behind .  Bairstow was out for 30 runs dismissed by Rajitha but before that England suffered a huge blow when Joe Root (3) got runout . 


 England's middle order failed once again in this World Cup.  No one could stand except Ben Stokes.  Joe Root, Buttler, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali all went cheaply .  Lahiru Kumara bowled a seriously fast spell to rattle the England middle order getting Buttler (8) caught behind and Livingstone (1)  lbw . Stokes and Moeen briefly tried to stem the collapse but Anjelo Mathews had Moeen (15) caught at point . Finally Stokes at 43 tried to take on the bowling but fell to a catch in the deep off Kumara and from there England never recovered.   Willey 's (14) few runs took England to 156 before the team was allout in just the 34th over . 



Not Sri Lanka's spin, but the pace attack totally unsettled  England's batting which  looked disoriented.  Only Stokes scored 43 runs.  England did not play for long after he got out.  They were all out for 156 runs in 33.2 overs.



 England's bowlers had to take wickets in the beginning to win this match.  That's what David Wiley does.  He quickly returned Kushal Perera and Kushal Mendis.  Sri Lanka did not have a problem to return to the match, even though they were under a bit of pressure because the target was low.  Sadeera Samaravikrama paired with Pathum Nishanka.  Both of them made a pair of half centuries.  They took the team to victory without taking any risk. Both Nissanka and Sadeera played delightful cricketing shots , picking the gaps as they drove , cut , flicked and glided the ball beautifully which gave England no chance to recover or make a comeback. 


 England were under pressure as Sri Lanka cruised towards victory.  The two Sri Lankan batsmen played some big shots towards the end.  In the end Sri Lanka won the match by 8 wickets with 146 balls to spare.  Nishank remained unbeaten with 77 and Samaravikram 65 runs.  Buttler, Stokes have to leave the field with the burden of loss.


Lahiru Kumara for his 3 wickets was the player of the match as Sri Lanka reached 5th spot in the points table . England are now virtually out of the world cup .

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