Sri Lanka 160 for 2 (Nissanka 77*, Samarawickrama 65*) beat England 156 (Stokes 43, Kumara 3-35) by eight wickets
England’s World Cup defence is not dead yet. And more’s the pity, to judge by this latest hollow-eyed display from Jos Buttler’s ex-worldbeaters. The humiliations are coming so thick and fast that they are losing their shock factor but, suffice to say, this latest crushing loss – by eight wickets and in just 59 overs of the match’s 100 – was neither the largest nor the most shocking of an abject campaign.
It was, however, the one that confirmed beyond any lingering doubt that this team of genuine England greats no longer has any miracles left within its dressing-room. The match-up was nominally eighth versus ninth in the tournament standings, but by the time Pathum Nissanka had slammed Sri Lanka’s winning six over long-on with a massive 148 balls remaining, you were left to wonder whether this England team, in this miserable mood, could even have matched their conquerors’ achievement of making out of the qualifying tournament in July that did for the likes of West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland.
The theory was that a reversion to such depth would free England up to play their natural attacking game, and so it proved in a misleadingly energetic powerplay flurry. Dawid Malan lashed six fours in as many overs in another brief but imposing cameo – five of them launched in trademark fashion over the covers as Dilshan Madushanka offered too much width.
But the signs of England’s anxiety were never far from the surface. Had Sri Lanka trusted their instincts, Jonny Bairstow would have fallen lbw first-ball, after replays showed that his straight drive to a Madushanka yorker had first flicked his front pad. And when that first incision finally came, the rest of a devastatingly off-colour line-up followed all too obediently.
Three overs later, and Mathews was back in the action, this time from backward point. Joe Root’s bereft search for ODI form has mirrored that of his team as a whole, and so what better time for a catastrophic run-out to rear its head? After grinding out three singles from his first nine deliveries, Root mistimed a cut off Maheesh Theekshana, and set off for a single. The bounce, however, could not have plopped into Mathews’ grasp more invitingly, and Root was already off the field by the time the third umpire’s superfluous verdict flashed up on the big screen.
From 44 for 0 after six overs, England had now lost 2 for 15 in the rest of their powerplay. And with Lahiru Kumara’s arrival adding an extra pep to Sri Lanka’s performance, Bairstow decided attack was his team’s only defence. His next shot in anger was a flappy pull across a length ball from Kasun Rajitha, and Dhanajaya de Silva didn’t have to move as the chance embedded in his bread-basket at mid-on.
At 68 for 3, enter Jos Buttler: struggling with his own form, and with panic seizing his team once more. Six balls later, he was gone to yet another snick to the keeper, his third such dismissal in five ill-at-ease outings. This time, at least, it was not a tentative prod to match his downfalls against New Zealand and South Africa. But his attacking slash to the extra pace of Kumara had the same effect regardless, as Kusal Mendis leapt spectacularly to his right to cling on.
England’s innings was less than 15 overs old, and already they were into those allrounders. But Livingstone, alas, barely qualifies as such right now – his sixth ball from Kumara screeched into another uncomfortably planted front pad as he trooped off for 1, for a tournament tally of 31 runs in four innings. His departure left England five-down after 17 overs, and the race to the bottom was well and truly on.
Stokes and Moeen briefly stemmed the tide to add 37 runs in 46 balls, riches by the standards nosediving around them. So long as Stokes was picking his moments for outright aggression – as he did with four pulls of varying power through the legside and a bullet drive through the covers – England retained the belief that their miracle man had another epic stored up his sleeve.
But to do so, he required support from the other end, but what he got was a dereliction of duty. On a run-a-ball 15, Moeen ruined this fleeting impression of permanence with a floppy cut to point, as Mathews returned for his fourth over and used his nous and lack of pace to prise out his second key wicket of a killer return. And one over later, Woakes’ dismal campaign hit a new low with a fourth-ball duck – a fierce cut to point off Rajitha, well grabbed by a swooping Sadeera Samarawickrama, whose confidence was sufficient to convince the third umpire that a blurry replay was no reason to doubt that the chance had carried.
Stokes, by this stage, was 34 not out from 58 balls, but at 123 for 7, even he had no inkling of whether to stick or twist. He had already survived one flying edge to the gully, where this time Samarawickrama had not been able to cling on, as well as an overturned review for lbw after under-edging a reverse-sweep against Theekshana. But on 43, and with exactly 20 overs of the innings still remaining, Kumara’s head-hunting approach found him out. Another full-blooded pull found a top-edge to deep midwicket, and the substitute Dushan Hemantha didn’t have to move.
Sri Lanka’s own frailties meant that the run-chase was not a done deal, especially once Willey – one of England’s few reliable competitors – had removed Mendis and Kusal Perera in the space of his first three overs. But Woakes, England’s white-ball attack leader, lacked penetration yet again, and in the absence of further powerplay incisions, neither Rashid nor Wood was able to provide the X-factor that such an uncompromising situation demanded.
Rashid’s fifth ball was smoked onto the roof at long-on as Nissanka showed the sort of gumption against his opponents’ chief threat that England as a collective were unable to find. His fourth half-century in consecutive World Cup knocks was sealed with a sublime drive through the covers off Wood, but the numbers that mattered the most were the two points that his innings ensured would be added to Sri Lanka’s qualification cause. They too, are not dead yet in the race for the top four. Unlike England, however – who are already braced for impact as they face table-toppers India in Lucknow on Sunday – Sri Lanka will stride onto next week’s clash with Afghanistan believing that they can get right back into the mix.
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
