England’s dismal ODI World Cup defence reached a nadir on Thursday after they lost by eight wickets to Sri Lanka at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Opting to bat first on yet another hot afternoon, the reigning champions began well with Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow putting on 45 runs for the opening wicket- the former showing an aggressive approach to negate the moving ball.
But then the slide began after Malan fell, he was caught behind off the bowling of comeback man Angelo Mathews and then anchorman Joe Root was caught in a mix-up with Bairstow and was run out for 3.
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England made the Sri Lankan bowling attack look better than it actually was, with some soft dismissals. Bairstow looked set for a long stay in the middle but whipped one to Dhananjaya de Silva at mid-on on 30 to give Kasun Rajitha his first wicket of the afternoon.
A lot hinged on captain Jos Buttler to take England to a competitive score, but he fell for 8 edging one to Mendis behind the stumps off Lahiru Kumara to leave his side reeling at 77 for 4 inside 15 overs.
Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali tried to rebuild the innings but when the latter fell, caught by Kushal Perera off Mathews’ bowling, for 15, England found themselves in a deep hole at 122 for 6 with more than half the overs, still left.
Stokes was trying his best to do what he’s known for-rescue England from a dire position but a genuine lack of support at the other end was not helping matters and England were eventually bowled out for 156 in 33.2 overs.
England vs Sri Lanka Highlights, World Cup 2023
Any defence of a modest total requires early wickets and David Willey gave England the start they needed by removing Kusal Perera and captain Kusal Mendis in the Powerplay overs.
But Pathum Nissanka (77 off 83 balls) and the in-form Sadeera Samarawickrama (65 runs off 54 balls) combined caution with aggression and put on an unbeaten stand of 137 runs for the third wicket to knock the stuffing out of the reigning champions and cause another dent in their forgettable campaign.
Earlier in the day, England again made multiple changes to their playing XI, three to be exact, bringing in Chris Woakes, Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali for Harry Brook, Gus Atkinson and Reece Topley.
Sri Lanka made two changes to the XI that beat the Netherlands on Saturday, excluding Chamika Karunaratne and Dushan Hemantha and bringing in Kumara and Mathews- his first ODI appearance for the national side since June.
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With their third consecutive loss, England are on the cusp of exiting the World Cup in the group stage itself, their fate is no longer in their own hands as Buttler and Co dropped to ninth place, while Sri Lanka jumped to fifth place, leapfrogging Pakistan thanks to the massive margin of victory.
Brief Scores: England 156 all out in 33.2 overs (Stokes 43, Bairstow 30; Kumara 3-35) lost to Sri Lanka 160 for 2 in 25.4 overs (Nissanka 77*, Samarawickrama 65*; Willey 2-30).
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