England completed a tense four-wicket win over Sri Lanka to seal qualification for the T20 World Cup semi-finals, with Ben Stokes holding his nerve to score an unbeaten 42
England have booked their place in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup after Ben Stokes guided them to a nail-biting four wicket win over Sri Lanka, which also knocked defending-champions Australia out of the tournament.
Having won the toss and opted to bat first, Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis got Sri Lanka off to a perfect start, striking 39 off the first four overs and taking Mark Wood’s opening over for 17. England made a crucial breakthrough at the end of the fourth when Mendis holed out off Chris Woakes for 18, with Liam Livingstone taking an excellent sliding catch at deep backward square leg.
And while Nissanka continued to bat brilliantly, England fought back well in the second half of the Sri Lankan innings. Nissanka brought up his second-half century of the tournament off 33 balls and held the Sri Lankan innings together while England’s spinners dragged things back.
Dhananjaya de Silva and Charith Asalanka holed out for single figure scores before the excellent Adil Rashid finally dismissed Nissanka for 67. With the opener gone, England were able to close out the innings expertly at the death with Wood and Sam Curran.