England vs Sri Lanka LIVE: Cricket World Cup result and reaction as Buttler’s men suffer another heavy defeat
Follow all the action from Bengaluru as England seek to keep their slim World Cup hopes alive
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England suffered another embarrassing defeat in the Cricket World Cup to leave them on the brink of an early elimination. Having won the toss and elected to bat, Jos Buttler’s men failed to get any rhythm going. Wickets fell consistently and not even a rearguard defence from Ben Stokes (43) could help England set a decent total as they were skittled for 156.
In reply, Sri Lanka lost two quick wickets as David Willey gave England a glimmer of hope to reduce their opponents 23-2. That was the last moment of joy though as Pathum Nissanka (77*) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (65*) both passed fifty in a partnership worth 137 to earn victory in Bengaluru.
England have now lost four of their five matches in the World Cup and face an early exit with difficult tests against Australia, Pakistan and India still to come.
Relive all the action below:
England 44-0 (6), Bairstow 16, Malan 28, Theekshana 0-5 (1)
Sri Lanka have made a bowling change following Rajitha’s expensive second over, and after three dot balls, he drags one down and wide and Bairstow does what he has done for so many years and rightly sends it to the boundary.
A much better over that caused some problems with the flat spin going through Bairstow and through Malan at times.
England 39-0 (5) Bairstow 11, Malan 28, Madushanka 0-20 (3)
England are finding their groove here and this could be a very high-scoring match. Malan hits a four the first ball of this over following the three boundaries in the previous one.
Australia scored 367 against Pakistan at Bengaluru in the only other match of the tournament so far played there, and England will want to put something similar on the board today.
The thermometer showed it is hot, around 31 degrees, so definitely better to be the batting side, although it might not faze Sri Lanka as much as the heat in Mumbai affected England against South Africa.
England 27-0 (4), Bairstow 11, Malan 16, Rajitha 0-19 (2)
Malan kept the strike with a single last ball of the over, and has another two here with a flick off middle stump towards deep backwards square.
He has another four second ball of the over with a bit of width on offer, a big drive past point to the cover boundary. The next ball is also sent almost to the same area.
Bairstow also finds the boundary, that was a great over from England.
England 12-0 (3), Bairstow 7, Malan 5, Madushanka 0-8 (2)
Malan is off the mark with a sweet cover drive to the boundary. That is his shot and he plays it so well.
The slip has come out, and interestingly the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper is wearing pale blue gloves, not a colour you see too often.
Malan is then almost caught poking around outside the off stump.
The boundaries are smaller than some here, with the shortest boundary 55m and the longest 79m.
After a couple of balls the slip comes back in.
England 7-0 (2), Bairstow 7, Malan 0, Rajitha 0-4 (1)
England just need to settle down and take their time. It’s something they haven’t been able to do for the majority of their four matches so far.
And they keep trying to be positive, Bairstow goes for a big swing across the line and misses the ball. Might be too early for that kind of batting.
He drives a more conventional shot next ball, but straight at the fielder.
The first bit of width...Bairstow throws the hands at it and does get four for that as it flies over the fielder at point.
The first boundary of the match.
England 3-0 (1) Bairstow 3, Malan 0, Madushanka 0-3 (1)
Dilshan Madushanka will open up for Sri Lanka with Bairstow to face and there is a bit of swing around and England have got away with one there!
He is struck on the pad and it goes down the ground for three. Sri Lanka thought about a review briefly but were timed out and that’s very lucky for England because it would have been out.
There might be sighs of relief in the changing room.
England vs Sri Lanka
Ahead of the start of the match, here are some photos from the warm-ups in Bengaluru:
England vs Sri Lanka
It cannot be understated just how key this match is for England.
They went into the tournament as double world champions following their win in 2019, plus their 2022 Twenty20 World Cup success, but are only off the foot of this year’s competition on net run rate.
It has been a poor showing from the side which has not changed a huge amount in the last four years, and questions have been raised over the captaincy of Jos Buttler and the ability of head coach Matthew Mott.
England vs Sri Lanka
England’s batters have not found their footing in this tournament.
Only Dawid Malan has scored a century - against Bangladesh - while Root has two half centuries, but the others have yet to find their footing.
They have almost gone too hard from the outset even if you take the disastrous collapse against South Africa aside.
Ben Stokes will be in the side and will hope to bring a new dimension to the batting, but it is more than just one player and the entire top and middle order will have to stand up.
England vs Sri Lanka
It will be a big test for Chris Woakes. He did not find his feet in the opening two matches.
It was a poor start when his first over of the tournament went for 12, but he will have to step up following the injury to Topley as England cannot let Sri Lanka get away from them at the start of the batting.
However, first it will be time for England to show what they can do with the bat.
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