Sri Lanka 6-169 (Mahela Jayawardene 42, Angelo Mathews 28, Stuart Broad 3-32) beat England 9-150 (Samit Patel 67, Graeme Swann 34, Lasith Malinga 5-31) by 19 runs.
The Lankan Lions continued their unassailable record in the Super Eights while beating England in their last match led by the superb bowling of Lasith Malinga.
Sri Lanka plundered 169 runs with four wickets in hand at the end of the stipulated 20 overs and England was confined to 150 for the loss of nine wickets.
The express bowler, Lasith Malinga, was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his hostile bowling in the encounter.
The 22nd match of the ICC World Twenty20 was held on Monday, October 1, 2012, at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.
Stuart Broad, the skipper of England, won the toss and invited Sri Lanka to bat first on a wicket that looked good for batting. The Lankan Lions preferred to attack with their openers Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan. They scored eight runs in the first over but the latter was dropped on the fourth ball of the next over in the slip by Graeme Swann on the bowling of Jade Dernbach at eight runs.
The duo picked up 16 runs in the fourth over with one six from each of them and took the score to 35 in 4.4 overs when Dilshan was gone for 16 runs. The master batsman of the Islanders, Kumar Sangakkara, joined in next with Jayawardene and added six runs on the first two balls he faced. Sangakkara was dropped by the wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow off Graeme Swann on the third ball of the 8th over at 11 runs.
The second wicket partnership enhanced the score to 74 when Graeme Swann struck twice on the consecutive deliveries of the 11th over. Mahela Jayawardene was caught at midwicket by Eoin Morgan for 42 off 38 balls with 1 six and 5 fours on the first ball of the 11th over and Kumar Sangakkara followed him on the next ball for 13. Both wickets fell at 74 in 10.2 overs as Angelo Mathews and Jeevan Mendis joined together at the crease.
Mendis started off with a couple of fours in the 11th over and Mathews followed him with the same outcome in the next over. The hundred of the innings was attained in the 14th over and the batsmen accumulated 17 runs in the 15th over with two sixes. They smashed 52 runs in 31 deliveries when Jeevan Mendis was caught by Ravi Bopara off Stuart Broad on 18 scored off 13 balls with 1 six and 2 fours. Mathews was clean bowled by Broad on the very next ball for 28 off 19 deliveries with 1 six and 3 fours as the fifth wicket fell at 126 in 15.4 overs.
Thisara Perera remained unbeaten for 26 off 16 balls with 2 huge sixes as Sri Lanka thrashed 169 for the loss of six wickets in 20 overs.
Stuart Broad was the top wicket taker with three, Graeme Swann captured two and Steven Finn claimed one wicket.
England had the worst possible beginning of their innings as Lasith Malinga crumbled their initial three wickets in no time. All three wickets were grabbed in the third over and the Englishmen were struggling at 3-18 in 3 overs. Samit Patel and Eoin Morgan stopped the onslaught of the rival bowling as the first was the most assertive of the two. He scored 2 fours in the 6th over followed by three boundaries in the next over.
The wickets kept on sliding from the other end as Patel achieved his maiden T20 fifty on the fourth ball of the 14th over. England lost their 7th wicket at 93 in 14.1 overs when Graeme Swann appeared in the park. The run rate was accelerated instantly by the two batsmen as Samit Patel added 11 runs in the 15th over with 1 six and 1 four. Swann joined the race by gathering 15 runs two overs later with 3 fours followed by a six in the next over.
England required 33 runs to win the match from the last 12 balls as the furniture of Samit Patel was broken by Lasith Malinga for 67 off 48 with 2 smart sixes and 8 fours. Nuwan Kulasekara clean bowled Graeme Swann for 34 off 20 with 1 six and 4 fours in the last over as England managed 150 runs with just one wicket in hand at the closure of the 20th over.
Lasith Malinga broke the back of the English batting by grasping five wickets, Akila Dananjaya held two whereas Nuwan Kulasekara and Jeevan Mendis got one wicket.
Sri Lanka won the exciting match by a margin of 19 runs and maintained their unbeatable record in the Super Eights.
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