England's dream of winning the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 came to an end as they were hammered by Sri Lanka by 10 wickets, failing to defend a meagre total of 229 at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
England won the toss and chose to bat first and got off to a slow start scoring just 29 runs in first seven overs. Dilshan and Malinga bowled tight spells early in the innings making it difficult for the batsmen to score easy runs. Dilshan was finally rewarded for his accuracy as he cleaned up Andrew Strauss (5 off 19 deliveries), who tried to heave the ball over mid wicket but missed the ball completely all together.
An over later Ian Bell, who seemed to be in good form scoring 25 off 32 deliveries, played a loose shot off Angelo Mathews , offering a simple catch to mid wicket. England were reduced to 31 for 2 in nine overs. Jonathan Trott and Ravi Bopara then resurrected the innings adding 64 runs for the third wicket; Bopara in particular looked out of touch and survived three lbw appeals before finally falling leg before wicket to Muttiah Muralitharan for 31 in the 27th over.
Trot then added 91 crucial runs in 16 overs for the fourth wicket with Eoin Morgan as he brought up his half-century from 71 deliveries. Morgan on the other hand was playing a lucky innings as he was dropped thrice, first in the 32nd over and twice in the 39th over and survived a close lbw appeal on 29 in the 37th over, which seemed to be plumb but was given not out by the on field umpire and the fielding side didn't ask for a review. Morgan's luck finally ran out in the 43rd over, the first over of the batting powerplay, as he was caught at covers trying to clear the infield.
Morgan made 50 off 55 deliveries with four hits to the fence. Graeme Swann, promoted up the order, perished in the next over leg before wicket to Ajantha Mendis, trying to reverse slog-sweep the spinner. Trott and Matt Prior then added 26 runs for the sixth wicket and took the score to 212 in 48.2 overs before Trott was finally dismissed for 86, top edging a sweep to deep square leg off Muralitharan. His 115-ball knock included two hits to the fence. England managed only 23 runs at the cost of two wickets in the final powerplay. Matt Prior and Luke Wright then hit 17 off 9 balls to reach 229 in 50 overs. England were slow throughout hitting just 12 boundaries in their entire innings.
Muralitharan was the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka with figures of 2 for 54.
In reply, Sri Lanka got off to a brilliant start as openers Upul Tharanga
and Tillakaratne Dilshan went berserk hitting 100 in 19 overs, Dilshan being the aggressive of the two bringing up his half-century from 57 balls. Tharanga used his feet cleverly to spinners while Dilshan unleashed his brilliant square cuts. Dilshan brought up his century from 107 deliveries and remained not out on 108 from 115 deliveries with ten hits to the fence and two over it, while Tharanga got to his century with the last hit of the match, hitting Chris Tremlett through the covers as Sri Lanka chased down the total in 39.3 overs. Tharanga remained not out on 102 off 122 deliveries with twelve hits to the fence and one over it.
Tillakaratne Dilshan was named the man of the match for his all round effort of 1 for 25 in six overs and 108*.
Result: Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets (with 63 balls remaining)
Scores: England: 229/6
Sri Lanka: 231/0
Man of the Match: Tillakaratne Dilshan
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