Three Lions continued their unbeaten run in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 as they registered their fourth victory on the trot in the Super 12s. England defeated Sri Lanka by 26 runs at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday. With this victory, Eoin Morgan’s England have sealed their place in the semi-finals.
England overcame the difficult batting conditions in the first innings and the great amount of dew along with the loss of a frontline pacer in the second innings, to complete a remarkable victory. Jos Buttler was the hero for England with an incredible knock of 101* off 67 and a run-out in the field. In the bowling department, Chris Jordan and Adil Rashid were brilliant with 2/24 and 2/19, respectively.
Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first without hesitation. England were batting first for the first time in the tournament, and they were pushed back early with Jason Roy falling to Wanindu Hasaranga in the second over on 9 off 6. Dawid Malan was cleaned up by Dushmantha Chameera in the fifth over for 6 off 8.
In the next over, Jonny Bairstow was trapped LBW by Hasaranga on his first ball, where an excellent review from Sri Lanka reversed the on-field decision. England were reduced to 36/3 at the end of the powerplay.
Captain Eoin Morgan joined Buttler in the middle as the duo tried to reconstruct the innings. Morgan, who has been in horrendous form, struggled to even rotate the strike in his first 20 balls. Buttler completed his fifty off 45 balls before going berserk in the later part of the innings. The pair added 112 runs for the fourth wicket. Morgan, who was 9 off 20, smashed a few sixes before he was cleaned up by Hasaranga on 40 off 36.
Buttler continued his power-hitting at the other end, scoring 14 runs in the last over to bring up his first international T20 hundred with a six. With the conditions extremely tricky for batting, England recovered from 47/3 at the halfway stage to 163/4 in 20 overs. Hasaranga was exceptional for Sri Lanka, claiming 3/21 in four, while Maheesh Theekshana was nearly impossible to play with 0/13 from his four.
Chasing 164, Sri Lanka had a great chance of victory with heavy dew and conditions easing up drastically. They took an early blow with Pathum Nissanka getting run out on the third ball of the innings. Charith Asalanka scored a few boundaries before he was caught at mid-off on 21 off 16. Kusal Perera was the next one to go as he skied Adil Rashid’s googly to the extra cover. Avishka Fernando’s poor run in the middle order continued as he was trapped in front by Chris Jordan in the ninth over.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa raised Sri Lanka’s hopes with 26 off 18 before he holed out at long-on off Chris Woakes’ off-cutter. Captain Dasun Shanaka and Hasaranga took the reins in their hands and kept the team in the game with boundaries at regular intervals. Halfway into the 14th over, England’s strike bowler Tymal Mills pulled a quad injury and had to walk off the field, leaving England in a critical situation.
The Lankan Lions needed 63 off 39 with the opposition needing to bowl three overs of part-time spin. Hasaranga played brilliantly for his 21-ball-34 to bring the equation down to 35 off 3.2 overs. Things went sideways from here on as Roy and Sam Billings did an excellent tag-teaming at wide long-off to dismiss Hasaranga off Liam Livingstone’s bowling.
Buttler then ran Shanaka (26 off 25) out with a direct hit to put England firmly in control. Chameera flicked Jordan, but it went straight to deep backward square leg. Needing 30 off 12 with two wickets in hand, Moeen Ali wrapped things off with wickets of Chamika Karunaratne and Theekshana.
Brief Scores
England – 163/4 in 20 overs (Buttler 101*, Morgan 40; Hasaranga 3/21)
Sri Lanka – 137 in 19 overs (Hasaranga 34, Rajapaksa 26; Rashid 2/19, Ali 2/15)
