Kasun Rajitha was flinging that long arm of his in the air, celebrating the ouster of Jonny Bairstow. Tall, well-built and muscular — he made for good television. This was a key moment of the match too, with England losing the plot after having got off to what seemed a brisk start. Sri Lanka kept striking, be it through Rajitha or someone else, to effect a crushing defeat that has the defending champions teetering on the brink of a group-stage exit.
The outcome of this eight-wicket win, after bowling England out for a dismal total of 156 in conditions decent for batting in Bengaluru, didn’t significantly brighten Sri Lanka’s prospects in this World Cup. What it dealt was a probably a knockout punch. After four defeats in five games, Jos Buttler & Co are practically out as far as chances of reaching the last four are concerned. They have to win every game and hope that results and run rates in almost every other game fall in their favour.
This was England’s best chance to start a rejuvenation run. They had to win this and gather steam for the challenging fixtures awaiting them against India, Australia and Pakistan. With this match lost, the propagators of Gen Y ODI cricket appear doomed. They crashed completely when it came to replicating their feared batting performances of the last few years. Was it because of Indian conditions? Not sure. Their batters succumbed in different manners.
Take the two Rajitha wickets for instance. Shackled for a brief period after a brisk start, Bairstow had seen two of his partners head back to the pavilion. The delivery he tried to muscle over mid-on from the back foot was not that short. He played an injudicious shot. Chris Woakes was unfortunate to have an unclear review going against him, but the shot he spooned towards point was very soft.
This was England’s story at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where they had succumbed to a stunner of a defeat against Ireland in 2011. But that was a story of Kevin O’Brien hammering a magical century. This was a tale of England pressing the self-destruct button. Buttler, Dawid Malan and others threw their bat at everything before coming to terms with the conditions. Ben Stokes was no exception, although he fell when he was running out of partners. Silly run-outs added to their misery.
This was also a spirited bowling effort from a team suffering because of lack of resources in this department. Playing just his second game of the tournament, Lahiru Kumara worked up pace and pitched things in place. His cause in the end was aided by some wanton shot selection, but it was difficult to overlook that he kept hitting the right areas. The slow nature of the pitch helped.
Angelo Matthews was another hero of this concerted Sri Lankan performance. Bowling in an ODI after years, the former captain got the first breakthrough to pull England back. Dibbly-dobbly it may have looked like, but his was a crucial effort. And that was the hallmark of the Sri Lankan enterprise. It was not spin bowling. Their quicker bowlers asked the questions and took most of the wickets. Some sparkling strokeplay from Pathum Nissanka (77 not out off 83 balls) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (65* off 54) then ensured that England’s miserable day finished in just 59 overs.
In the context of their future in this competition, this win will not do Sri Lanka a world of good. With two wins from five, and India and New Zealand to play, they are still not among the teams tipped to qualify for the semi-finals. What they did was effectively shut the door on one of the pre-tournament favourites, who as recently as last year were threatening to monopolise the white-ball formats. By winning a game that may not fetch them much more than two points, Sri Lanka ended up playing a part in changing that world order.