T20 World Cup: Bowlers dominate as England ease past Sri Lanka

Dubai: England began their T20 World Cup Super 8s campaign on a high with a big 51-run win over hosts Sri Lanka in a low-scoring match in Kandy on Sunday.

After restricting England to 146, Sri Lanka’s batting also suffered a similar fate as the top order collapsed in quick succession as they lost five wickets for just 34 runs.

Will Jacks bowled all his four overs early in the innings to claim the crucial three wickets.

Dasun Shanaka held the innings firm for a while scoring a 24-ball 30 but the lower order couldn’t make much of a difference as they folded up for 95 in 16.4 overs.

Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson and Adil Rashid all claimed two wickets each.

No frontline bowlers

Earlier, left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage took 3-26 as England managed to reach 146-9.

Phil Salt scored 62 at the top of the order but Sri Lanka, who are missing three of their frontline bowlers, contained the rest of the England batting line-up with regular wickets.

Wellalage was introduced during the power play and trapped the out-of-form Jos Buttler (7) and Harry Brook, both lbw, as England limped to 68-4 at the halfway mark.

England captain Brook, on his 27th birthday, started brightly but fell for 14 off seven balls when he got stuck on the front foot and was deceived by a flighted delivery.

Salt was caught in the deep of Wellalage after facing 40 deliveries with six fours and two sixes.

Will Jacks, with 21, was the only other England batsman to score more than 20.

Left-arm seamer Dilshan Madushanka kept things tight to finish with 2-25 in the powerplay while Maheesh Theekshana took an impressive 2-21 with his offspin.

With inputs from AFP