LEEDS  -   Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga achieved Men’s Cricket World Cup career-bests to set up a thrilling 20-run victory for Sri Lanka over England.

The new-ball pair of Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes gave England the perfect start with the key dismissals of Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera to leave Sri Lanka 3/2 after 2.2 overs. From there, Avishka Fernando – making his World Cup debut – counterattacked with a thrilling 39-ball 49 but his stay at the crease ended with him guiding a catch to third man off the bowling of Mark Wood.

From there Kusal Mendis and Mathews patiently rebuilt until Adil Rashid struck twice in one over to further dent Sri Lanka’s effort. Mathews continued to play the anchor role for his side as wickets fell around him, ending the innings unbeaten on 85. Wood and Archer finished with three wickets apiece as they helped restrict the batting side to 232/9 from 50 overs.

Lasith Malinga struck a major early blow in the England chase, trapping Jonny Bairstow lbw for the batsman’s second golden duck of the tournament. James Vince fell for 14 but Joe Root continued his excellent form with another half-century in the tournament.

Nonetheless, the dismissal of Root saw England begin to lose control of the match and while Ben Stokes fought hard, passing fifty himself, wickets continued to fall around him; Malinga pinned Jos Buttler with a superb yorker, while Dhananjaya de Silva’s canny off-spin returned three wickets in the space of 14 balls.

When Isuru Udana enticed Archer to hole out to Thisara, England still needed 47 runs, but with Stokes still at the crease, England had a chance. He was put down off Malinga’s penultimate ball, and cashed in straightaway with consecutive sixes off Udana.

He was in the midst of a masterclass, bludgeoning boundaries when he could, and leaving No.11 Mark Wood at most one ball to play an over. But one ball was all it took for Nuwan Pradeep to nick Wood off and spark joyous Sri Lankan celebrations.

Player of the match Lasith Malinga said: “We know how good Stokes is, we know how hard he hits, but we stick to our basics, and kept bowling our stock balls, and ended up winning. We stick to our plan, line and length, variation of slower ball and bouncer. We have good confidence as we know how good the England team is.”

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne said: “Our batters and bowlers did really good work, when you are playing it is slower and slower, we couldn’t get to 300 so wanted 250-275, Angelo batted really well and with some score on the board the bowlers knew what to do.

 It’s a team effort, when Malinga got a couple of wickets we needed to keep him for the last overs, and Dhanajaya did a really good job.”

England captain Eoin Morgan said: “We were at fault with a lack of substantial performances. It wasn’t good enough. It’s frustrating, every game is a one-off game, it’s about fronting up today, and bouncing back on Tuesday. Both sides adapted to conditions, found it challenging on a bowler’s day. There will be those throughout the tournament, so we have to adapt. As a team we come back aggressively. This is a long, long tournament, there are opportunities in every game. Australia, it’s a fixture you look for first on the fixture list.”

POINTS TABLE

Pos Team Played Won Lost N/R Net RR Points
1 Australia 6 5 1 0 +0.849 10
2 New Zealand 5 4 0 1 +1.591 9
3 England 6 4 2 0 +1.457 8
4 India 4 3 0 1 +1.029 7
5 Sri Lanka 6 2 2 2 -1.119 6
6 Bangladesh 6 2 3 1 -0.407 5
7 West Indies 5 1 3 1 +0.272 3
8 South Africa 6 1 4 1 -0.193 3
9 Pakistan 5 1 3 1 -1.933 3
10 Afghanistan 5 0 5 0 -2.089 0

Scorecard

SRI LANKA:
D Karunaratne c Buttler b Archer 1
K Perera c Ali b Woakes 2
A Fernando c Rashid b Wood 49
K Mendis c Morgan b Rashid 46
A Mathews not out 85
J Mendis c & b Rashid 0
D de Silva c Root b Archer 29
T Perera c Rashid b Archer 2
I Udana c Root b Wood 6
L Malinga b Wood 1
N Pradeep not out 1
EXTRAS: (lb 4, w 6) 10
TOTAL: (9 wkts, 50 overs) 232
FOW: 1-3, 2-3, 3-62, 4-133, 5-133, 6-190, 7-200, 8-209, 9-220.
BOWLING: C Woakes 5-0-22-1, J Archer 10-2-52-3, M Wood 8-0-40-3, B Stokes 5-0-16-0, M Ali 10-0-40-0, A Rashid 10-0-45-2, J Root-2-0-13-0.
ENGLAND:
J Vince c K Mendis b Malinga 14
J Bairstow lbw b Malinga 0
J Root c K Perera b Malinga 57
E Morgan c & b Udana 21
B Stokes not out 82
J Buttler lbw b Malinga 10
Moeen Ali c Udana b de Silva 16
C Woakes c K Perera b de Silva 2
A Rashid c K Perera b de Silva 1
J Archer c T Perera b Udana 3
M Wood c K Perera b Pradeep 0
EXTRAS: (lb 1, w 5) 6
TOTAL: (all out, 47 overs) 212
FOW: 1-1, 2-26, 3-73, 4-127, 5-144, 6-170, 7-176, 8-178, 9-186, 10-212.
BOWLING: L Malinga 10-1-43-4, N Pradeep 10-1-38-1, D de Silva 8-0-32-3, T Perera 8-0-34-0, I Udana 8-0-41-2, J Mendis 3-0-23-0.
TOSS: Sri Lanka
UMPIRES: Paul Wilson, Marais Erasmus
TV UMPIRES: Bruce Oxenford
RESERVE UMPIRE: Paul Reiffel
MATCH REFEREE: Sir Richie Richardson