England overcame Sri Lanka by four wickets on Saturday to advance to the T20 World Cup semi-finals and eliminate defending champions Australia from the competition.
Alex Hales and Ben Stokes were the English team's heroes on the night, as they reached the target with two balls to spare.
Dasun Shanaka, Sri Lanka's captain, won the toss and chose to bat first. Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis got off to a flying start, putting on a 39-run partnership in four overs.
Chris Woakes ended Mendis stay at the crease, but Nissanka continued to play powerful strokes and scored a well-made fifty. The other batters, though, found difficult to bat on the pitch, with Dhananjaya de Silva and Charith Asalanka being dismissed for single-digit scores.
Apart from Nissanka and Mendis, Bhanuka Rajapaksa was the only batter to reach double figures as Sri Lanka scored 141 runs in 20 overs for the loss of eight wickets.
Mark Wood was the pick of the English bowlers as he picked up three wickets for 26 runs in three overs.
With England chasing 142 runs to win, Jos Buttler and Alex Hales set England off to a flying start, putting up 75 runs for the first wicket in eight overs. With Buttler's wicket, Hasaranga provided Sri Lanka with their first breakthrough.
Hales did not survive long either, succumbing to the Sri Lankan spinner after hitting an exciting 47. Hales' innings lasted 30 balls and featured seven boundaries and one six.
The Sri Lankan bowlers were able to apply pressure and reduce the equation to 13 off 13 balls, and Kumara got Sam Curran's wicket to keep things intriguing moving into the last two overs.
Ben Stokes, on the other hand, showed amazing poise to score 44 off 36 balls to clinch England's victory. Chris Woakes hit the winning runs as England prevailed by four wickets and advanced to the semi-finals.
READ| 'I don't see any problem with that': R Ashwin on run-out at non-striker’s end
