England lost badly in the World Cup, Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets

ENG vs SL: Defending champion England has faced another embarrassing defeat in the World Cup 2023. Sri Lanka defeated England by 8 wickets in a spectacular fashion and registered its second win in the tournament. Sri Lanka won for the second consecutive match. This is England's fourth defeat in 5 matches. In this match played in Bengaluru, England, batting first, scored only 156 runs. Then Sri Lanka achieved this target within 26 overs. Fast bowler Lahiru Kumara and opener Pathum Nissanka had important contributions in this victory of Sri Lanka.

As always, fans were expecting rain of runs at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Then these expectations increased even more when England chose to bat first. But England, which was going through poor form, could not take advantage of this opportunity. The batting line-up which was considered the most dangerous before the World Cup, proved to be the worst and is constantly struggling for runs. In Bengaluru it has reached its limits.

Another flop show from England's scoundrels

Jonny Bairstow (30) and David Malan (28) gave a strong start to the team and scored more than 40 runs in just 6 overs. Then Malan's wicket fell in the 7th over and from here England started faltering. This blow to England was given by Sri Lanka's experienced all-rounder Angelo Mathews (2/14), who was included in place of injured Matisha Pathirana in the middle of the World Cup. Then Joe Root was soon run out and the series of wickets started.

The biggest blow to England was given by fast bowler Lahiru Kumara (3/35). The right-arm fast bowler single-handedly destroyed England's explosive middle order. First he dismissed captain Jos Buttler and then dismissed Liam Livingston LBW. Ben Stokes (43) held the lead alone for a long time but he also became a victim of Lahiru. England's entire innings collapsed for 156 runs in just 33.2 overs. This is the smallest score of any team at Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Sri Lanka achieved the target easily

This target never looked very difficult for Sri Lanka but it also did not have a good start. David Willey took the wicket of Kusal Perera in the very second over. And in the sixth over, Willie again took the wicket of captain Kusal Mendis. Since assuming the captaincy, Mendis has stopped scoring runs with his bat. After the fall of 2 wickets for just 23 runs, it seemed that England could do something amazing or create problems for Sri Lanka but it did not happen.

Pathum Nissanka and in-form Sadira Samarawickrama (65 not out) ended all hopes of England's comeback. Both of them batted fast and completed their half-centuries. Then in the 26th over, Pathum Nissanka (77 not out) hit a brilliant six on the ball of Adil Rashid and gave the team a memorable victory by 8 wickets. In this way, Sri Lanka has kept its hopes intact, while the doors to progress for England are almost closed.