Angelo Mathews blasts England out of the World Cup, with his bowling

Can South Africa break their hex?

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England attacked by nibbling at an Angelo Mathews wobbler on a length outside off stump and with two childhood teammates getting confused and Joe Root being run out. I hear a lot of talk about attacking, intent and being reckless, but what I see from England is uncertainty. If they went down swinging, we’d be like, well, fair enough, they win the moral World Cup. We even had Ben Stokes’ dead bat. Is this what they dusted off his last bit of Synovial Fluid for, to block and faf about while everyone also played half-arsed shots? Jonny Bairstow’s shot, that’s the stroke of a man who is wondering if he left the stove on. It’s the illusion of attacking.

Their whole World Cup has been like that. Sri Lanka also played in this game. They did well. 

Sri Lanka can bowl now (JK)

Let’s start with Sri Lanka. They were dreadful bowling early in the series, they had young kids, injuries and flat wickets. But they were really poor, and being that many of us saw them as a bowling team coming in, it must have cut them even deeper that their strength was being smacked around India. 

But something changed after the Australian loss. They had even more injuries with Pathirana out, and they dropped Wellalage, meaning the bowlers who came in were more experienced. But also, the wickets they played on were better as well. Either way, from a numbers point of view they weren’t from the worst bowling attack in the trophy to the best. So far we have only seen that against England and the Netherlands, so perhaps it is more than just pitch-dependent. But they certainly didn’t look like the lost boys they did at the start of the tournament.  

Sri Lanka dried up the boundaries between the 6th and 15th overs - no boundaries for 50 balls. This was also the lowest first-innings total ever at the Chinnaswamy. Although Dinesh Karthik mentioned before the toss that a drier wicket was used as compared to the Australia-Pakistan game, it still wasn’t 156 all-out bad.

Angelo Mathews’ triumphant return to ODI cricket (CS)

By all appearances, Angelo Mathews wasn’t in Sri Lanka’s World Cup plans in the past cycle. The 36-year-old allrounder played in 10 of the 56 50-over matches England had between the 2019 and 2023 World Cups. He flew in from Sri Lanka, where he wasn’t playing much cricket because of the rain, as a replacement for Matheesha Pathirana. 

The decision to bring in Mathews as a replacement for the bowler was strange, given that Mathews had last bowled for Sri Lanka in 2020. But it worked against England. Mathews bagged two wickets. Ravi Shastri mentioned in the mid-show break that sometimes when you’re out of form, these dibbly dobby sort of bowlers are the most irritating to face.

Sri Lanka batting up top (JK)

Sri Lanka’s batting has overperformed in this tournament compared to their last couple of years. And so much of that is at the top. They are the second-quickest team in the powerplay, thanks to a couple of Kusal Mendis moments. But also their average of 45 means they aren’t losing many wickets. Australia’s top order has been praised so far, but Sri Lanka is there with them. 

Nissanka & Sadeera are best suited for ODIs (SAK)

Pathum Nissanka scored the most runs for Sri Lanka in this World Cup cycle, averaging 38 & striking at 84. On the other hand, Sadeera played all but one of his 17 games in 2023. He was brought back for the ODI series against Afghanistan in June, after which he played pretty well in the World Cup Qualifiers and the Asia Cup. This is the longest run Sadeera has had in Sri Lanka’s ODI side. Today, Nissanka looked in sublime form right from ball 1, opening his account with a splendid cover drive. Despite the two early wickets, both of them batted positively in the Powerplay. They milked Rashid really well after the field restrictions.