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Pallekele: Sri Lanka saw off a late comeback by Samit and Swann but emerged comfortable victors in the end. Sri Lanak and West Indies are through to the next stage while England and New Zealand go home empty handed.
Chasing a challenging target of 170 runs, England stammered as they lost half their side inside 12 overs and under 80 runs in their crucial ICC World Twenty20 Super Eights match at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Monday.
Sri Lanka, on the basis of their supreme run-rate as compared to other teams, became the first team to qualify for the semis of the World Twenty20 when England were 87/5 at the 13.1 overs mark with 41 balls to spare.
After a Lasith Malinga triple strike jolted the English top-order, Samit Patel and Eoin Morgan revived their 169-run chase right before Morgan was scalped by Jeevan Mendis.
Malinga got his fourth wicket in the match when he dismissed Jos Buttler, who was caught convincingly at long leg right before Jeevan Mendis bowled an unimpeachable ball to clean bowl a clueless Ravi Bopara.
Dananjaya then further rubbed salt to the English wounds when he got skipper Stuart Broad caught at extra cover by Jayawardene.
Patel and Morgan put up a speedy 50-run partnership in just 38 balls to hold the England chase steady after they suffered early setbacks by the hands of Malinga.
Malinga, with his fiery display of aggressive bowling, was able to dismiss Luke Wright (12), Alex Hales (3) and Jonny Bairstow (2) in his first over to dent the English chances of winning this crucial match.
While Wright and Bairstow were caught off perfect short off length deliveries, Hales failed to read a typical Malinga slinger that caught him on his pads right in front of the wicket.
Earlier, Sri Lanka set a tough 169-run target for England after being asked to bat first when Jeevan Mendis and Angelo Mathews put up a sweltering partnership to put the Sri Lankan innings on track before Stuart Broad dismissed the duo with some sublime bowling.
Broad first dismissed Jeevan Mendis (18) when the Sri Lankan was caught at mid wicket by Ravi Bopara and then was able to the get the better of Angelo Matthews' (28) stumps.
The Mendis-Matthews duo put up a swift 50-run partnership off just 29 balls for the fourth wicket to set the pace running in the Sri Lankan innings.
Earlier, Graeme Swann struck twice in one over to dismiss the in-form Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.
Swann got two wickets in two deliveries when he first got Jayawardene, who in his attempt to hit a quicker delivery was caught brilliantly at midwicket by Eoin Morgan and then scalped Sangakkara, who caught the slightest of edges to be taken convincingly by keeper Jonny Bairstow.
Jayawardene scored a fine 42 runs, which included 5 boundaries and a single six along with splendid partnerships with Sangakkara and Tilakaratne Dilshan.
Sri Lanka suffered its first setback after a good start when Steven Finn dismissed Dilshan (16) by catching him plump before the wicket, which proved elementary in breaking the quick fire 35-run opening partnership with Jayawardene.
Brief scores
Sri Lanka 169 for 6 (Jayawardene 42, Broad 3-32, Broad 2-26)
England 150 for 9 (Patel 67, Swann 34, Malinga 5-31, Dananjaya 2-26)
Result Sri Lanka won by 19 runs
Points Sri Lanka 2, England 0
MOM Laisth Malinga (Sri Lanka)
