Photo: Getty Images/Phil Walter
Sri Lanka made sure that England’s victory over Scotland was just a mere break in a losing streak that began on the first day of the 2015 World Cup as they crushed England to a 9-wicket defeat at Wellington. Kumar Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanna scored centuries to bring Sri Lanka their third victory in this world cup after a poor start to the tournament.
England won the toss and batting first they posted a formidable total of 309/6 in 50 overs. Joe Root (121) scored a brilliant hundred as others played round him to post such a good total. Ian Bell’s innings of 49 runs at the top also proved out to be a crucial one as it provided the necessary platform for posting a big total. In the end Jos Butler’s innings of 39 runs from just 19 balls took England’s total over the 300-run mark. All the bowlers got one wicket each. But Malinga and Lakmal gave away too many runs in their overs. Tilekaratne Dilshan also bowled well for his 8.2 overs as he gave away only 35 runs and picked the wicket of Gary balance (6).
Sri Lanka made a blistering start to the run chase as they put on 100 runs in the first wicket partnership. Dilshan was the first man to go while he was on 44. After that Sangakkara came in and just toyed with the English bowling line-up. Lahiru Thirimanna also played a good innings and the duo made sure that they did not lose the second wicket in the match. Thirimanna scored 139 but Sangakkara’s innings of 117 off 86 balls was just mesmerizing. The English bowlers could never have him in trouble and it was an innings of sheer class.
With this win Sri Lanka now sit pretty at the second spot in Group B while this defeat pushed England down to the second last position in the table just above their neighbour Scotland. With 3 matches still to go in the group stage for England it’s high time that they pull up their game and make sure that they do not set a major upset so early in the tournament.
Tags: Cricket ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 ICC World Cup 2015 Sri Lanka
