England's poor run of form in the World Cup 2023 continued as they suffered a huge eight-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka on Thursday, October 26. The bowlers shone to bowl out England on just 156 runs and then brilliant fifties from Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samrawickrama gave the Island nation their fifth straight win against England in ODI World Cup history.
Both teams entered the game with three defeats in the first four games in the tournament and needed a win to remain alive in the race for the semifinal spot. Jos Buttler won the toss and elected to bat first at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Angelo Mathews replaced injured Matheesha Pathirana while England recalled Liam Livingstone, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali.
The defending champions seemed to find their rhythm as openers Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan added 45 runs for the first wicket. But Sri Lankan bowlers made a sensational comeback through their pace attack to bowled out England on 156 runs, the lowest ODI total at the venue.
Ben Stokes top-scored with 43 runs off 73 balls but failed to get any support from his teammates. The speedster Lahiru Kumara took three wickets while Mathews and Kasun Rajitha picked two each to make an impact.
The pace all-rounder David Willey gave England a promising start with early wickets of Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis. But once again, England failed to capitalise on a good start and soon lost control of the game. In-form Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Smarawickrama were brilliant in the middle and dominated English bowlers all over the ground.
Nissanka and Samarawickrama remained unbeaten with the former finishing the game with a six off Adil Rashid. Nissanka top-scored with 77* runs off 83 balls while Sadeera added crucial 65* runs off 54 balls. Lahiru bagged the Player of the Match award for his brilliant three for 35 figures.
Sri Lanka Playing XI: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (c & wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Mathews, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Dilshan Madushanka
England Playing XI: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
