England play sensible cricket to reach semi-finals:

Mathews’valiant knock in vain as defending champs bow out

By SA’ADI THAWFEEQ Reporting from India

DELHI: Defending champs Sri Lanka bowed out of the World T20 tournament when they were beaten by 10 runs after giving England a tremendous fight to stay in contention in a Group 1 fixture played at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds on Saturday.

Sri Lanka looked down and out after losing their first four wickets for just 15 runs in the first three overs of their innings, but a spirited fight back led by Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews who batted for the latter part of the innings with a hamstring injury that hampered his stroke play, saw Sri Lanka give England some anxious moments before losing.

Mathew hit an unbeaten 73 off 54 balls inclusive of five sixes and three fours as Sri Lanka chasing England’s total of 171-5 finished agonisingly on 161-8.

He was so disappointed with the result that he threw his bat down in disgust at the end of the contest. The loss meant that England joined the West Indies in the semi-final from Group 1 and Monday’s contest between Sri Lanka and South Africa at the same venue becomes insignificant,as both teams have no chance of qualifying.

The difference between the two sides was that England played sensibly whereas Sri Lanka failed to execute whatever plans they came up with for the contest.

Upto the 15th over Sri Lanka had the game well under control as Herath, Vandersa and Mathews kept England pinned down to a total of 99-3.

What cost Sri Lanka the game were the last five overs when they allowed England the luxury of 72 runs that enabled them to reach a challenging 171-4.

What was most surprising was why Mathews didn’t use the off-breaks of Dilshan. On a slow and turning pitch he opted to bowl his pacers and it didn’t make any sense at all. England played sensible cricket keeping their wickets intact to see off the dangerous spin of Herath and Vandersay and towards the death they had plenty of ammo in the tank to knockout the pace bowlers off their length.

Jason Roy made 42 off 39 balls, but the real acceleration to the England innings was provided by Joss Buttler, the England wicket-keeper who ended up making a cultured 66 not out off 37 balls that comprised eight fours and two sixes.

With his captain Eoin Morgan, Buttler added 74 off 39 balls for the fourth wicket. Engla got off to a bad start losing Alex Hales for a duck in the second over but recovered through a stand of 61 off 51 balls between Roy and Joe Root (25), before the final acceleration that was to take the wind out of the Lankan sails Sri Lanka began disastrously losing Dilshan (2), Chandimal (1), Siriwardana (7) and Thirimanne (3) within the first three overs to be poorly placed at 15-4.

Mathews and Kapugedera (30) began the recovery process by figuring in a fifth wicket stand of 80 off 60 balls. Following Kapugedera’s departure, Thisara Perera struck some lusty blows in his 20 off 11 balls (2 sixes) and Dasun Shanaka (15off 9 balls) helping Mathews near the England total.

But England kept their nerve and Chris Jordan bowled a good line and length to get rid of Perera, Chanaka and Herath in the penultimate over.

Sri Lanka managed just five and England heaved a sigh of relief as they moved to the last four of the competition joining West Indies and New Zealand.

Buttler was named Man of the Match.

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND
J Roy lbw b Vandersay				42
A Hales lbw b Herath      			00
J Root c Thirimanne b Vandersay  		25
J Buttler not out      				66
E  Morgan run out  				22
B Stokes not out      				06
Extras (b-1, lb-5, nb-1, w-3)    		10
Total (4 wickets, 20 overs)            	       171

Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Hales), 2-65 (Root), 3-88 (Roy)
		 4-162 (Morgan)
Did not bat: M Ali, C Jordan, D Willey, A Rashid, L Plunkett.
Bowling: Mathews 4-0-25-0
	 Herath 4-1-27-1
	 Vandersay 4-0-26-2
	 Siriwardana 1-0-9-0
	 Chameera 4-0-36-0 (nb-1, w1)
	 Perera 2-0-27-0 (w2)
	 Chanaka 1-0-15-0

SRI LANKA
D Chandimal c Buttler b Jordan			01
T Dilshan c Hales b Willey      		02
M Siriwardana c c Morgan b Willey		07
L Thirimanne run out      			03
A Mathews not out          			73
C Kapugedera c Stokes b Plunkett 		30
T Perera c Willey b Jordan      		20
D Shanaka c Root b Jordan     			15
R Herath b Jordan   				01
J Vandersay not out         			00
Extras(lb-2, w-7)     				09
Total (8 wickets, 20 overs)      	       161

Fallof wickets: 1-3 (Dilshan), 2-4 (Chandimal), 4-15 (Siriwardana),
		 4-15(Thirimanne), 5-95 (Kapugedera), 6-137 (Perera),
		 7-155 (Shanaka), 8-1579Herath).
Did not bat: D Chameera.
Bowling: Willey 4-0-26-2
	 Jordan 4-0-28-4 (w3)
	 Plunkett 4-0-23-1 (w2)
	 Stokes 4-0-19-0(w2)
	 Rashid 2-0-31-0
	 Ali 2-0-32-0