England's Chris Woakes, right, and England's Ben Stokes celebrate after winning the T20 World Cup cricket match against Sri Lanka in Sydney. (AP)England vs Sri Lanka, T20 WC 2022, 39th Match, Super 12 Group 1: England defeated Sri Lanka by four wickets to qualify for the semifinals of the T20 World Cup on Saturday. The result eliminated defending champions Australia from the tournament. Batting first, Sri Lanka scored 141 for 8, riding on Pathum Nissanka’s 45-ball 67 and Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s run-a-ball 22. In response, England achieved the target with two balls to spare, scoring 144 for six in 19.4 overs.
England (Playing XI): Jos Buttler(w/c), Alex Hales, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Sam Curran, Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis(w), Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dasun Shanaka(c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara, Kasun Rajitha
Sri Lanka
141/8 (20.0)England
144/6 (19.4)England beat Sri Lanka by 4 wickets
England has to win against Sri Lanka on Saturday at SCG to qualify for the Semi-Finals of the World Cup
"I thought Stokes played a magnificent innings. These sort of things happen in T20 cricket. You bowl dot balls, you take wickets and create the pressure, that is T20 cricket for you. I created a few chances, bowled well, but I think it was a great team effort. I think all the bowlers bowled well, Stokes, Wood, everyone. We got some assistance (spin and seam) from this wicket, you don't get such assistance on Australian wickets. I felt quite good, even before the tournament I was feeling good. I did my job, was focused on it, rest is history. The pitch might spin, seam, you need to assess the conditions accordingly. We get this kind of support wherever we go, hopefully they (fans) will come out in numbers in the next match (semi-final) as well."
Last over. 5 needed off 6. Kumara to bowl and that's 2 runs. Fumble in the deep allowed that. Another single. 2 runs needed. 4 balls left. Ufff. Dot ball!!! 2 from 3 balls. A four to end the over. All over. England go through to the semis. Australia eliminated.
The penultimate over of the innings. Woakes in the middle. Kasun Rajitha to bowl this one. 1 run off the first ball. Another single follows. They need boundaries at the moment. Singles might not be enough. Excellent bowling by Sri Lanka. Two runs. 9 from 9. Wide!!!! Pressure, pressure and more pressure. Two more runs. England are close. Dot ball. A single to end the over. ENG 137/6 after 19 overs.
Down to the 18th over and this one is getting too close to call. England now need 15 from 18 balls. Looks fairly easy or is it? Lahiru Kumara in to bowl this over. A dot to start. Make that two dots. The Lankans need a wicket while England need a huge hit to relieve some pressure. And another dot!!! Masterstroke, bringing in Kumara at this juncture. That's one and Stokes is on strike now. Another single. 13 from 13. And another pull and that's out!!!! Curran is gone. Game well and truly on!!! ENG 129/6 after 18 overs.
Livingstone falls to Kumara and then Moeen Ali is out caught by Shanaka!! Dhananjaya gets his man. Is the pressure getting to England? England are losing the plot here and throwing it away! Reckless batting from the southpaw who chips it straight to the cover fielder. Score after 15 overs, ENG: 113/5
Dhananjaya picks up the wicket of Harry Brook with a brilliant Caught&Bowled!! Fine catching off his own bowling. Brooks is gone for 4(5)
Harry Brook in T20s in Australia
13 innings
93 runs
Avg 7.15
SR 88.57
HS 22
England have lost both their openers after a fiery start. Hasaranga spins a web and snares Buttler for 28 off 23. He then takes a fine caught and bowled to get rid off Hales who departs for 47. Score after 10 overs, ENG: 86/2
This Over: 2 6 4 4 0 4 = 20 from the over
Highest Pp total in WC 22
70/0: Eng vs SL Sydney
65/1: NZ vs Aus Sydney
64/0: Ire vs WI Hobart
63/1: SA vs Ban Sydney
FOUR! SIX!! Butter & Hales gave a flying start to ENG. England have recorded the highest powerplay total of this World Cup.
Rajitha bowls it full on the middle and leg and Hales does not miss that and lifts it over mid-off. England are up and running. Score after 2 overs, ENG: 15/0
Buttler and Hales are at the crease. Buttler is on strike. M Theekshana will open the attack and three runs off the first over. Score after 1 over, ENG: 3/0
Along with a friend, Pradeep Nishantha, a coach, was trying to find the home of Pathum Nissanka. He had heard about the batting talent of Nissanka, wanted to draft him at a Columbo school, but was finding it impossible to locate the small house. Nissanka’s house was one of the government-built homes for people affected by the tsunami.
Eventually, they would make a call to Nissanka’s father and ask him to come to the famous temple Kalutara bodiya in the region. (Read more)
After a promising start in the Powerplay with 54 runs. Sri Lanka lost their way in the middle overs. Nissanka batted brilliantly for his 67. Other than him the batting struggled. The team managed to score only 61 runs in the next 10 and 25 in the last five. Some brilliant bowling by the likes of Adil Rashid in the middle overs and Mark Wood at the death.
The going has been quiet since the wicket of Nissanka. Dasun Shanka has struggled to score boundaries he was put out of his misery by Mark Wood.
Brilliant innings by Pathum Nissanka come to an end. The right-hander played a brilliant hand set-up for Sri Lanka nicely to get a higher total.
Brilliant start this by Sri Lanka. They have started well in the Powerplay and are taking the momentum forward. Pathum Nissanka crosses his 50. With Bhanuka Rajapaksha in Shanka to come. They should definitely look for 180 here.
Another batter departs. Ben Stokes picks his first wicket of the evening. Asalanka trying to hit one over point gets caught. Sri Lanka 84/3
Dhananjay De Silva tried to hit one onto the leg side into the short boundary as his predecessor perished to Curran's cutter. Stokes takes a good catch on the boundary.
Sriram Veera: In the 7th over, when Liam Livingstone came on to bowl his legspin, the third ball must have raised hopes for Sri Lanka and the hosts. It gripped on a length and spun sharply past the defensive prod. If Liam can do that, so can Sri Lankans in the chase. Australia can hope. But if you get the length wrong, it can be whacked as Pathum Nissanka showed in the final ball of the same Liam over when he got down on his knee and whacked a full ball over long-on. Short compact and stroke-full - Pathum Nissanka has impressed so far with his pluck and shot selections.
Sriram Veera: When Pathum Nissanka flicked Chris Woakes, ala Kaluwitharana, he thought he was a goner. There was Harry Brook stationed at deep square-leg exactly for that shot. But it had seemed a gentle flick and flat that Brook came in a bit. Mistake. The ball had just about enough legs to carry on over the head of Brook who leaped and lunged behind but couldn’t get to it.
First Nissanka pursed his lips into a ‘ooooh’ before he started laughing away once his partner joined him.
Sriram Veera: When Pathum Nissanka flicked Chris Woakes, ala Kaluwitharana, he thought he was a goner. There was Harry Brook stationed at deep square-leg exactly for that shot. But it had seemed a gentle flick and flat that Brook came in a bit. Mistake. The ball had just about enough legs to carry on over the head of Brook who leaped and lunged behind but couldn’t get to it.
First Nissanka pursed his lips into a ‘ooooh’ before he started laughing away once his partner joined him.
Sriram Veera: ‘Kusal Mendis has thrown it away’ Russell Arnold would say on air when the Sri Lankan open got out. A bit harsh call, that. It was a ball to be hit - a slowish short of length delivery from Chris Woakes, and Mendis pulled it over midwicket. There was no fielder there but he didn’t reckon with Liam Livingstone. Off Liam charged all the way from deep square-leg, a manic dash if there was one, and suddenly found himself pretty close to the ball but it was dipping. He slid down on his knees and cupped it with both hands pretty close to the turf.
Kushal Mendis tries to hit one on the legside through the shorter boundary and gets caught. Brilliant running catch by Liam Livingstone of Woakes's bowling.
Sriram Veera: What do you do when the fastest bowler at the world cup comes on? Wood was introduced earlier than usual by Jos Buttler to try exploit Sri Lanka’s weakness against express pace, as Nasser Hussain put it. Kusal Mendis put Wood’s first ball high over backward square-leg into the upper tier. A lovely long-handed swing and the length ball on middle and leg kept flying. Couple of balls later, he chipped one over midwicket for three runs. Wood fired his last ball with a sharp short ball outside off and Pathum Nissanka hopped up to upper cut it up and over the leaping third man for the second six of the over. Buttler’s Wood gamble costed him 17runs
Good start for Sri Lanka. They are running well between the wickets the batters are timing the ball well. There is no moment with the new ball for England.
Pathum Nissanka and Kushal Mendis walk into the middle. Ben Stokes takes the new ball.
England (Playing XI): Jos Buttler(w/c), Alex Hales, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Sam Curran, Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis(w), Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dasun Shanaka(c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara, Kasun Rajitha
Dasun Shanaka: We are going to bat first. It's a used wicket, last 7 games were won by teams batting first. We have one change, Karunaratne is in for Madushan. It's an important game for us, we want to carry the pride for us. Hope we'll get some turn.
Jos Buttler: It's a used wicket, we need to play well, we need to play our best cricket. Would have batted first as well. We need to adapt to the conditions quickly, we have plenty of options with seam and spin. We are going in with the same team.
It was a hearty return to big runs in T20 cricket for Alex Hales, after a painful exile and time away from the national squad, as he weathered the Southee-Boult storm to score a reassuring half century against New Zealand in a vital game. Seven fours and a six were part of his 52 off 40 balls.
On a bright English summer day in 2016, a tall right-handed opener smashed Pakistan bowlers all over the park at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. The prodigal son of the county scored 171 runs in 122 balls. It wasn’t just any ordinary innings; it was an announcement of arrival.(Read more)
New Zealand on Friday became the first team to book a semifinal berth in the T20 World Cup after Australia were restricted to 168/8 by Afghanistan in a crucial game.
After New Zealand beat Ireland by 35 runs in their final super 12 group, defending champions Australia needed to win against Afghanistan by an improbable 185 runs to overtake the net run rate of their Trans-Tasman rivals. (read more)
Hello, welcome, everyone! to the final game of group 1 here in Sydney. With plenty of possibilities still open in the World Cup like who will face each other in the Semi-final and who will play where we are about witness a mouthwatering clash between England and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is out of the tournament but England is with a chance. If England loses Australia goes through to the semis. So it is all to play for on super Saturday.