England suffer shock Cricket World Cup defeat against Sri Lanka
ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, Headingley, Leeds |
| Sri Lanka 232-9 (50 overs): Mathews 85*, Wood 3-40, Archer 3-52 |
| England 212 (47 overs): Stokes 82*, Root 57, Malinga 4-43 |
| Sri Lanka won by 20 runs |
| Scorecard; Table; Schedule |
England were strangled into a shock 20-run defeat by Sri Lanka that dented their hopes of reaching the World Cup semi-finals and breathed life into the tournament.
Chasing 233 on an increasingly difficult pitch, the hosts were smothered by a brilliant Sri Lanka bowling performance in a compelling contest at Headingley.
When Ben Stokes was joined by last man Mark Wood, England still needed 47, but Stokes clubbed 23 from eight deliveries to make a deafening crowd believe.
Wood, though, edged Nuwan Pradeep behind to leave Stokes stranded on 82 not out and England 212 all out.
They had earlier restricted Sri Lanka to 232-9, with Angelo Mathews' painstaking 85 proving to be a match-winning innings.
England stay third in the 10-team table, but their three most difficult group games - against Australia, India and New Zealand - are still to come.
Sri Lanka climb to fifth, only two points behind England, their unlikely hopes of reaching the semi-finals still alive.
| World Cup group table | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | P | W | L | T | NR | RR | Pts |
| 1 | Australia | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.849 | 10 |
| 2 | New Zealand | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.591 | 9 |
| 3 | England | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.457 | 8 |
| 4 | India | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.029 | 7 |
| 5 | Sri Lanka | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | -1.119 | 6 |
| 6 | Bangladesh | 6 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | -0.407 | 5 |
| 7 | West Indies | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0.272 | 3 |
| 8 | South Africa | 6 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | -0.193 | 3 |
| 9 | Pakistan | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | -1.933 | 3 |
| 10 | Afghanistan | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | -2.089 | 0 |
Top four go through to semi-finals
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