Sri Lanka v England — Quick flicks of the day

Slinga ripped through the England top-order

Bopara’s surprise recall

Although Craig Kieswetter’s exit from the team came pretty late, Ravi Bopara’s recall was more surprising. He returned back scoring one run from six balls. We are unlikely to see him again in the tournament and not very soon in the English jersey.

The batsman is going through tough times in his personal life, and this has heavily affected his career. It’s isn’t new for England cricket. Does the once-brilliant Marcus Trescothick ring a bell?

Swap and save your leader

Mahela Jayawardene was tactfully saved from getting suspended from the next match. He had been fined for the team’s slow overrate in the previous match and Lankans did not want to risk losing him for the semi-finals. The immediate choice would have been vice-captain Angelo Matthews, but he too was facing a similar situation. So they turned to Kumar Sangakkara who captained the side nominally as Mahela was conducting the orchestra throughout.

The reason given was that their captain had been unlucky with the toss and Sanga was just a lucky mascot.

Meandering Mendis

Sri Lanka’s prime spinner Ajantha Mendis was grinded well by the Englishmen, putting to rest fears related to the once terrorizing carom ball. He was taken to cleaners with three boundaries off his very first over. Mendis ended with 40 runs without a wicket.

But that doesn’t mean England managed to play spin better. It was largely Samit Patel, who hadn’t faced a single ball in the tournament till now, who batted with fervour against the leggie.

Too late to pat Patel

Samit Patel has been underplayed by England in this tournament. Swapping him with Tim Bresnan wasn’t really a great move and today he answered all his doubters with the bat. He scored the bulk of his team’s total, a fighting 67 in the face of defeat.

One Malignant spell later               

There is probably no bowler more dangerous than Lasith Malinga, at least in T20 cricket. In this match, he showed why he is so feared. Malinga returned with figures of 5/31.

He shook England’s belief very early in their innings taking top three England wickets in a single over — Luke Wright, Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow were back in the pavilion within a span of four balls.

Lankans create a new record

Sri Lankans are through to the semi-finals and this goes into the record books. They are only the second team after Pakistan to reach the semi-final of this event three times.