Sri Lanka beat England to stay alive in Trophy hunt
LONDON, England (AP) — Sri Lanka made light of an imposing target of 294 by beating England with 17 balls to spare to stay alive in the Champions Trophy yesterday.
England were on course to clinch a semi-final berth after posting 293-7 under The Oval lights, but a century by Kumar Sangakkara and brilliant late fireworks from Nuwan Kulasekara led Sri Lanka to 297-3, the second-best successful run chase in Oval history.
The seven-wicket win meant Group A remained an open race for the semi-finals, with New Zealand on three points, Sri Lanka and England on two, and defending champion Australia also in contention on one.
The Sri Lankans were all out for 138 last Sunday in a loss to New Zealand, so their prospects were dim when they were asked to score at nearly six an over in the dusk. But the old heads spearheaded the chase and were at it almost straight away. Sangakkara was called on after only 14 balls, after opener Kusal Perera was out for six.
He and Tillakaratne Dilshan, the world’s two leading ODI scorers last year, forced England to try six bowlers against them as they combined for 92 before Dilshan was out for 44 with a big heave to long on.
Sangakkara was then joined by Mahela Jayawardene. They’ve known each other a long time, and they’re owners of a seafood restaurant in Colombo called Ministry of Crab. They were as tough as crabs together, putting on 85 for the third wicket before Jayawardene holed out to deep square leg to give James Anderson his second wicket at 187-3.
“We had to play well at the start, see off Jimmy Anderson, but Mahela played really well and we got on top of it,” Sangakkara said.
Sri Lanka surprisingly promoted bowling all-rounder Kulasekara, who was the only change in the team after the New Zealand loss. But it was an inspired choice.
With Sangakkara unmovable, Kulasekara saw the victory line and raced to it. He whacked an unbeaten 58 off 38 balls, including successive sixes off spinner Graeme Swann and another six off Stuart Broad over fine leg.
Sangakkara brought up his 15th ODI century off 111 balls, and hit the winning runs to begin the 48th over, his 12th four through square leg. He was unbeaten on 134 off 135 balls, and gave Sri Lanka renewed hope of making the semis at Australia’s expense on Monday.
England will meet the Kiwis on Sunday for the other semis spot.
England paced their innings virtually to perfection, after being reluctantly sent in to bat first. Starting with deliberate caution in the lunchtime gloom, the English made the scoreboard tick over with a gradual but dour regularity while protecting wickets. Their gameplan was boosted by five dropped catches.
Opener Ian Bell was the recipient of one drop before he was out for 20, bringing in Jonathan Trott, who anchored England for the middle 30 overs.
His chanceless knock of 76 included partnerships of 83 with Cook and 87 with Joe Root.
Cook was dropped on 23 and 56 and was finally out lbw to spinner Rangana Herath. The captain compounded his missed sweep by wasting the team’s sole video review.
Trott and Root upped the run-rate. Root’s face was at the end of David Warner’s punch in a pub early Sunday that got the Australian suspended yesterday, and while the incident embarrassed the England batsman, it had no effect on his growing stage presence.