Win sees England via to the semis, whereas hosts and defending champions Australia are knocked out.
England’s Ben Stokes stored his nerve to steer his group into the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals with a carefully fought four-wicket win over Sri Lanka, demolishing the hopes of defending champions Australia whose title defence is now over.
Stokes hit an unbeaten 42 in a sport England wanted to win to make the last-four from Group 1 alongside already certified New Zealand.
They received the win in a nail-biting end with two balls to spare. If that they had misplaced, hosts Australia would have gone via as an alternative.
“It was a good sport. It occurs in T20 cricket,” mentioned Participant of the Match Adil Rashid. “They bowled effectively and created stress however Stokesy performed magnificent so we received over the road which is an effective factor.”
Sri Lanka appeared on monitor for an enormous whole after they reached 80-2 after 10 overs, however the aggressive Pathum Nissanka was out for 67 and so they crumbled to 141-8 with bowler Mark Wooden taking 3-26.
In reply, England raced to 75 with out loss and appeared on monitor for a straightforward win. However they collapsed to 111-5 beneath stress from the Sri Lankan spin assault and it went to the wire.
The victory was not sufficient to dethrone New Zealand on the prime of the desk, with England having to accept second.
Sri Lanka’s defeat ended Australia’s stuttering event, with their title defence by no means recovering after shedding closely to New Zealand on the opening day then having to share factors with England as a result of rain.
“It was a tremendous combat however nonetheless we may have executed higher within the batting half,” mentioned Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka. “Even the English batters struggled within the latter half … After we go dwelling, we now have to actually polish up the areas the place we didn’t do effectively.”
Sri Lanka haven’t overwhelmed England in a T20 since 2014.