England squeezed into the T20 World Cup semi-finals with Ben Stokes ushering them to a four-wicket, final-over win over Sri Lanka after a batting wobble in Sydney.
Jos Buttler’s side came into Saturday’s game knowing victory would take them into the last four but that a defeat would see hosts and defending champions Australia qualify at their expense.
England reached their target of 142 with two balls to spare on a dry, used surface but only after a collapse of five wickets for 36 runs once Alex Hales (45 off 27) and Buttler (28 off 23) had broken the back of the chase with an opening stand of 75 from 45 balls.
Ben Stokes (42no off 36), batting at No 3 after Dawid Malan tweaked his groin in the field, and Chris Woakes (5no) guided England home as they secured second spot in Group 1, behind New Zealand on net run-rate, and a semi-final with the winners of Group 2 in Adelaide on Thursday.
Sam Curran (6) was caught at deep fine leg from the final ball of the 18th over with 13 runs required but his replacement Woakes went on to strike the winning four.
Stokes played the key hand with the bat, though, a little over three years after he had done the same in the 50-over World Cup final against New Zealand at Lord’s in July 2019.
Sri Lanka had made a brisk start after electing to bat, racing to 65-1 after seven overs thanks principally to Pathum Nissanka (67 off 45), but only mustered 76-7 from the last 13 as Adil Rashid (1-16) dried up the run-rate and Mark Wood (3-26) struck three times at the death.
More to follow.
What’s next?
Group 2 concludes on Sunday with all six teams in action. South Africa face Netherlands in Adelaide (12am UK time) before Pakistan play Bangladesh at the same venue (4am UK time) and then India meet Zimbabwe in Melbourne (8am UK time).
Next week’s semi-finals are in Sydney on Wednesday and then Adelaide on Thursday, both at 8am UK time, with the final in Melbourne on Sunday, November 13 also an 8am start UK time.
