Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag was full of praise for Sri Lanka after their win against England. After suffering some hard losses, Sri Lanka came back strongly against hosts England.
The win means Sri Lanka still keep their hopes alive. On the other hand, the world cup top 4 race also became interesting with England’s loss. Meanwhile, the loss means England did not win a single world cup match against Sri Lanka since 1999.
The match at Leeds was fiercely contested by both teams. The low scoring affair did become an exciting one at the end. A Lasith Malinga masterclass helped Sri Lanka win the match by 20 runs.
After winning the toss, Sri Lanka decided to bat first. However, their openers were dismissed at the score of 3. Then the middle order held the innings with crucial contributions from Fernando, Mendis.
Meanwhile, Angelo Mathews used his experience and ensured that he remained till the end. With lower order getting dismissed for low scores, Sri Lanka’s power hitting never kicked off. Eventually they ended up with just 232/9 in 50 overs.
Angelo Mathews was the top scorer with an unbeaten 85
Chasing a below par 233, English openers were dismissed by Lasith Malinga in his first spell. However, Eoin Morgan and Joe Root tried to stabilize the chase. Once both of them were dismissed at crucial junctures, Ben Stokes took the responsibility to help the team win.
But he got little support from the other end. After England lost 9 wickets, Ben Stokes looked really dangerous clearly the rope and getting boundaries. However, the other batsman was dismissed at the end, and Sri Lanka prevailed.
Ben Stokes finished with an unbeaten 82. But the star performer of the day was Lasith Malinga with four wickets.
Virender Sehwag was full of praise for Sri Lanka. He also revealed that the world cup race is getting exciting. England are set to play Australia, India and New Zealand in their last 3 games. However, the hosts need to win at least 2 of these 3 games, to progress without any combinations.
So the win for Sri Lanka, really opened up the tournament to have an exciting finish to group stage games. Sehwag tweeted on the scenario after Sri Lanka win.
His tweet read: “Excellent performance from Sri Lanka to beat England. England have India, Australia and New Zealand to play with and will have to win 2 out of these 3. World Cup is alive #EngvSL”
Excellent performance from Sri Lanka to beat England.
England have India, Australia and New Zealand to play with and will have to win 2 out of these 3.
World Cup is alive #EngvSL— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) June 21, 2019