ODI World Cup 2023: Sri Lanka crush England, dream almost over for defending champions
Sri Lanka has etched an important victory against the defending champions of the World Cup. England's dream of defending the title has taken another blow as the dream looks like fading away.
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FollowSri Lanka has crushed the England cricket team after an overall good performance in all three departments of the game. England captain Jos Buttler got an advantage in the ODI World Cup 2023 after he won the toss and chose to bat first. However, little did anyone know what was to happen in the next few hours.Â
England opening pair Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan provided the team a steady start against the new ball. However, once the first wicket was down, England suffered with a batting collapse. Dawid Malan was out after scoring 28 runs while Jonny Bairstow scored 30 runs.
It was a rough time after the dismissal of the openers. Joe Root managed to score only three runs, Jos Buttler only 8 runs, and Liam Livingstone only one run. From 45/0 in the 7th over to 85/5 in the 17th over, England saw their dream of defending the title slipping away. Only Ben Stokes was scoring runs from one end.Â
Ben Stokes managed to score 43 runs from 73 balls. His contribution with the bat led England to an appalling total of 156 runs in 33.2 overs. The bar for England's batting lineup seems to be sharply falling. Lahiru Kumara picked up three wickets while Kasun Rajitha and Angelo Mathews picked up two wickets each.
Sri Lanka lost Kusal Perera for three runs in the second over itself. Even Kusal Mendis was dismissed for cheap by David Willey. He picked two wickets in the starting phase for his team. This brought some belief into the England camp but Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama put up a fine partnership that led to the victory for Sri Lanka. Their victory came in the middle phase of the second inning. Sri Lanka chased down the total in the 26th over and they won the match by eight wickets.
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