England survive early scare to beat Sri Lanka and remain unbeaten in the T20 World Cup

Jos Buttler’s first T20 international century helped England to a 26-run victory over Sri Lanka in their fourth fixture of the T20 World Cup.

The win all but guarantees England a spot in the semi-finals due to their superior net run rate which sees them top Group 1 after four games and four wins.

Despite scoring 12 runs off the first over, England got off to a shaky start after losing three wickets in the powerplay. Wanindu Hasaranga continued his impressive performance in the tournament and began his spell by bowling Jason Roy out on his second delivery.

Buttler was comfortable batting against the Sri Lankan seamers but the spinners were causing a few more problems. The wicket-keeper hit two fours against Lahiru Kumara, who finished with an economy rate of 11, but Dawid Malan could not do the same against Dushmantha Chameera.

The number one ranked batsman tried to drive the ball through the off-side but missed the line as the ball crashed into the top of the off-stump. Two balls later, Hasaranga once again worked his magic as he trapped Jonny Bairstow for an LBW, leaving the Three Lions 36/3 after six overs.

Eoin Morgan came in next and put on a game-winning partnership with Buttler. They both steadied the ship before attacking the seamers at the end of the innings. The captain played an important role in rotating the strike to make the most of Buttler’s form.

The centurion made his intentions clear in the 13th over, hitting Chamika Karunaratne for back-to-back boundaries before hitting Kumara for 22 runs two overs later with some help from Morgan.

Hasaranga managed to take one last wicket in the penultimate over as Morgan’s attempted slog-sweep ended with his middle stump flashing with red lights. However, this did not stop Buttler from hitting 14 runs off the last over, with the final ball going for six and bringing up his ton.

He finished with a score of 101 and not out, hitting six sixes and the same number of fours with an impressive strike rate of 150.75.

Spinners Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana finished with economy rates of 5.25 and 3.25 respectively, meaning there was only one candidate to open England’s bowling attack.

Moeen Ali only conceded two runs off the first over but the wicket of Pathum Nissanka came in unlikely fashion. Kusal Perera guided the ball towards Morgan and the Sri Lankan openers decided to test the fielding abilities of the captain, which was not a good idea.

England’s skipper picked up the ball cleanly and fired it straight into the gloves of Buttler, who comfortably knocked over the bails.

Charith Asalanka was not fazed by the early wicket and attacked Chris Woakes in the next over. He hit a six and four off consecutive deliveries, forcing Morgan to go back to spin. Asalanka also hit two boundaries against Ali in the next over but suffered a different fate against Adil Rashid.

Asalanka skipped down the track to try and score big against Rashid but hit the ball high rather than long, giving Ali an easy catch. Rashid then got rid of Perera in his next over in a carbon copy of the Asalanka wicket.

Fernando Avishka struggled again, getting trapped for LBW by Chris Jordan while Bhanuka Rajapakse got too trigger-happy against Woakes and was caught out by Roy after two boundaries in the previous balls.

The following partnership for Sri Lanka between Hasaranga and skipper Dasun Shanaka had shades of what was done by Buttler and Morgan in the first innings.

The partnership reached 50 runs but the duo had to increase the strike rate, needing just over 10 runs an over from the last seven overs. It started well as they hit Tymal Mills for 14 before scoring 10 against both Liam Livingstone and Jordan respectively.

It was clear Hasaranga wanted to target Livingstone but the partnership was broken by an astounding piece of fielding. As the Sri Lankan hit the ball towards the boundary rope, Roy dove for the ball, caught it and threw it to Sam Billings before he slid into the cushions.

That was the turning point in the innings which swung the game into England’s favour as they took out the Sri Lankan tail-enders with some more world-class fielding.

England’s final fixture in the Super 12 stage is against South Africa as they look to carry on their 100% record in the competition.

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