A disciplined unbeaten 42 from Ben Stokes has guided a nervy England into the T20 World Cup semi-finals with a four-wicket victory over Sri Lanka.
After Australia only narrowly defeated Afghanistan on Friday, England knew that a win in Sydney would be enough to book their spot in the last four.
For a large part of the match, England looked in control, restricting Sri Lanka to 141-8 from their 20 overs and putting on an opening stand of 75 in their reply.
However, England ended up limping over the line, needing the composure and game management of Stokes to ensure that they prevailed with two balls remaining.
Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka and Pathum Nissanka had suggested that they were ready to deny England and hand tournament hosts Australia a place in the semi-finals.
Nissanka scored 67 from 45 balls in a knock which included five sixes but wickets fell at regular intervals, particularly during the final five overs as Sri Lanka scored just 23 runs from their final 27 deliveries.
England seal their spot in the #T20WorldCup 2022 semi-finals 🤩
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) November 5, 2022
They have now made it to the last four in three successive editions of the tournament! 👏 pic.twitter.com/JzdGRkOB7A
Mark Wood played a key part in that, taking three wickets to end with figures of 3-26, and it provided Jos Buttler and Alex Hales with greater freedom to make quick inroads in reaching their target.
Buttler made 28 off 23 before becoming the first wicket to fall, and Hales (47) seemed destined to reach his half-century until he was deceived by the pace of Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva.
At 82-2 with more than half of the overs still remaining, chasing down the remaining 60 runs should have been a formality for England, but Harry Brook (4), Liam Livingstone (4) and Moeen Ali (1) all gave their wickets away cheaply.
That left Stokes to take centre stage in a measured way, frequently chipping off singles and twos to keep England requiring less than a run a ball, but the dismissal of Sam Curran (5) with two overs remaining did not help matters.
At this point, England needed 13 from 12 with a new batsman in Chris Woakes at the crease, but Stokes continued to bat smartly to put his side on the brink of victory.
With two runs remaining from four deliveries, Woakes failed to connect, although it was a brief alarm as the all-rounder found the boundary with the next ball, just the third time that it had found the rope from any batsman at three or lower in the order.
England now progress to a semi-final in Adelaide on Thursday, and India will await them if they can defeat Zimbabwe on Sunday.
Darren Plant
