England and Sri Lanka locked horns in the ongoing 20-20 World Cup 2022 on November 5, Saturday and it was a crucial match for the Three Lions as they needed to pull off a win to make it through to the semis. After electing to bat first, the Sri Lankan openers Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis got off to a flyer until the latter returned back to the pavilion after contributing 18 runs.
Nissanka, however, stayed in the crease and reached the fifty-run landmark before making his way back to the dressing room for 67 runs. Post that, it was all downhills for the Island Nation as the middle order started collapsing and much to the dreariness of the Sri Lankan fans, the batters could put on only 141 runs on the board at the end of the first innings.
England make it through to knockouts
Regarding the chase, the England openers Alex Hales and Jos Buttler were breathing fire as the Three Lions gathered 70 runs at the end of the powerplay and remained wicketless. However, Sri Lanka managed to give themselves an outside chance to win the game as they racked up wickets of Buttler, Hales, Liam Livingstone and Harry Brook in quick succession. For the unversed, while Hales and Buttler contributed 47 runs and 28 runs respectively, Brook perished for 4 runs. Livingstone, who stayed in the crease, scored as many runs as Brook and it was Ben Stokes, yet again, who stood up for the team.
Scoring an unbeaten 44 runs off 36 balls, the southpaw lifted his team from the labyrinth and ensured that his team made it through to the semi-finals. Eventually, the Three Lions won the match by 4 wickets and the team would hope to win the title under the leadership of Buttler.
As things stand, England would face the first-placed team from Group 2 in the semi-finals and it is more likely that it might be India as the team would face Zimbabwe in the final Super 12 match. Australia, on the other hand, are out of the tournament as the Three Lions boast a better run rate than the Kangaroos.
Let us take a look at a few interesting Twitter reactions to the nail-biting clash:
The DEFENDING CHAMPIONS knocked-out before the knockouts in their own den! TAKE THAT! ?@CricketAus #ENGvSL #SLvENG #T20WorldCup2022 #Australia #AaronFinch #DavidWarner
— Ani (@anirudhani_) November 5, 2022
With end of #SLvENG
,Ends the world cup campaign of Defending Champs and The Host and ENg and NZ to knockouts from Group of Death#T20worldcup22— Karky_tapendra (@KarkyTapendra) November 5, 2022
#NewZealand & #England r thru to the #Semifinals frm Group 1, feels sorry for #Australia. They did play well bt the other 2 teams played better than em. #ENGvSL #ENGvsSL #SLvENG #SLvsENG #INDvsZIM #T20WorldCup
— Alok Katyayan (@AlokKatyayan619) November 5, 2022
Sri Lanka ne dubayi Australia ka naiyaa#T20WorldCup
— CricFoot Articles (@CricfootA) November 5, 2022
Congratulations @BLACKCAPS & @englandcricket for making into the SEMIFINALS of #ICCT20WorldCup2022 ???#T20WorldCup #ENGvSL #SLvENG
— ???????•?????? (@sasanknv) November 5, 2022
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Come on Englandddddd Semi Finals here we come babyyyyy!!! #T20WorldCup #England #SLvENG #T20
— James Sibley ? (@JamesSibley87) November 5, 2022
Happy but still seething how we couldn't beat Ireland & struggle against Sri Lanka.
Disappointing world cup so far TBH #SLvENG— trebor63????????????????????? (@TreborTrevor) November 5, 2022
Two proud records related to T20 WC that still hold right for this edition:-
a)No team has defended it's title successfully
b)No host team has won the tournament#T20WorldCup #crickettwitter #ENGvSL #SLvENG— Soumya Biswal (@Soumyahere17) November 5, 2022
Close call, we did aight. #SLvENG
— sach. (@datmahomielover) November 5, 2022
