England reach 89 for 2 in 25 overs against Sri Lanka in quarter-final – ICC World Cup 2011
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 will be watching
today’s game closely, as the winners will be up against them in the semi-final.
Andrew Strauss won the toss for his team and elected to bat first. He expected the wicket to be good for batting, but conditions weren’t that easy in the middle. The ball didn’t come onto the bat and conditions were expected to worsen in the second half
of the match.
Ian Bell was promoted up the order to open the innings along with his captain Andrew Strauss. However, the start wasn’t an ideal one for England, as they lost their captain early. The stylish left-hander only managed to add five runs to the total from 19
balls. He was out in an attempt to slog the ball over midwicket.
Although Bell was stroking the ball nicely, he failed to capitalise on the start he got. He was dismissed after scoring 25 runs from 32 balls with the help of three stylish fours.
England’s first-drop Jonathan Trott and all-rounder Ravi Bopara steadied the ship for their team in the middle overs. They constructed an unbeaten stand of 58 runs for the third wicket, halfway through their innings.
Bopara had a tough time in the middle, but he managed to hang in. There were a lot of leg-before shouts against him and one close stumping attempt. He was batting on 28 off 52 balls with the help of one four.
On the other hand, Trott didn’t find it too hard to rotate the strike. The in-form English batsman was unbeaten on 30 from 47 balls, at the end of 25 overs. He will be looking to bat until the end and guide his team to a respectable total.
The home team experimented by giving the new all to Tillakaratne Dilshan and the move worked out well for them. The part time spinner got the first English wicket to fall today. The other wicket-taker for Sri Lanka was Angelo Mathews, who grabbed the wicket
of Bell.
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