England lorded over Aghanistan in quite sensational fashion as they built up a score close to 400. Skipper Eoin Morgan led from the front a with a supreme record-breaking hundred, which featured 17 sixes. In fact, their batting has been on a totally different level. Apart from Morgan, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy as well as Jos Buttler, all have been among the runs.
If there is one area England have to improve, it's in the bowling department. They could not take all of Aghanistan's wickets in spite of bowling their quota of overs. This is something they should be wary of. The likes of Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, Ben Stokes as well as spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali need to come up with better contributions.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, did not go into the competition as one of the stronger sides, and hence their performance hasn't been surprising. Dimuth Karunaratne has tried his best to keep the team afloat with the bat and in the field but his efforts, while commendable, haven't been enough. Kusal Perera has also played a couple of impressive knocks but there has been little in the form of performance from others.
Angelo Mathews has been the biggest disappointment of all for Sri Lanka. With his experience, he was expected to play a key role in the team's campaign this year. However, he has looked completely out of sorts. Another experienced hand Thisara Perera too has failed to deliver with both bat and ball. Nuwan Pradeep and Lasith Malinga are the ones to have made some sort of influence with the ball.
A defeat to England will all but seal their World Cup hopes. A victory in contrast will be viewed as one of the biggest upsets.
Squads
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Dhananjaya de Silva, Nuwan Pradeep, Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Mendis, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Perera (wk), Thisara Perera, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay.
England: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
--By A Cricket Correspondent
