England’s defence of the Cricket World Cup is in dire straits after a woeful showing with the bat against Sri Lanka.
With both sides sitting with a 1-3 record coming into Thursday’s match, a loss would effectively eliminate either nation from semi-final contention, with only the top four teams to qualify.
But after a solid start England lost five wickets for just 30 runs, eventually bowled out for 156 – the lowest ever all-out ODI total at the Bengaluru venue – putting them on the brink of tournament oblivion.
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Summing up their woes Adil Rashid was run out at the non-striker’s end after walking out of his crease, in scenes reminiscent of the infamous Jonny Bairstow dismissal during the Ashes.
“That is dopey from Adil Rashid, it’s absolutely brilliant from Sri Lanka’s captain,” the commentator proclaimed.
Former captain Angelo Mathews marked his return to the Sri Lanka team with a wicket with just his third delivery.
The veteran all-rounder, who was called up to replace the injured Matheesha Pathirana after initially being left out of the 15-man squad, is appearing in his fourth World Cup.
Mathews had Dawid Malan caught behind after the opener had made a brisk 28 with defending champions England on 45-1 at the time.
Mathews then ran out Joe Root (3) before the English also lost the wickets of Jonny Bairstow (30) and captain Jos Buttler (8) in quick succession.
It left Ben Stokes and Liam Livingstone at the crease at 77-4 attempting to save their innings, and indeed their tournament.
But Livingstone’s review of an LBW called out on the field was unsuccessful with the wicket impact declared umpire’s call, just clipping the bails over the top, leaving them 85-5.
Four runs later Stokes survived an LBW call with a successful review finding his bat had made contact with the ball.
While Stokes helped spark a brief recovery with the tail there were constant losses until he fell to the bowling of Lahiru Kumara for 43, leaving the holders 137-8.
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