T20 World Cup: England beat Sri Lanka by 4 wickets to qualify for semi-finals as Australia bow out

Alex Hales and Ben Stokes helped England beat Sri Lanka by four wickets at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Saturday (November 05) to reach the semi-finals of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022. Hales and Stokes produced crucial knocks of 47 and 42 runs respectively as England chased down the target of 142 runs with two balls to spare against the Asia Cup champions.

England lost the toss and were invited to bat first in their must-win clash with Sri Lanka getting off to a good start. Opener Pathum Nissanka slammed a brilliant 67 off 45 balls and set the stage for a strong total, however, Sri Lanka’s middle-order collapsed as they were restricted to 141/8 in 20 overs.

Mark Wood continued his fine form with the ball and ran riot as he picked up a three-wicket haul and finished with excellent figures of 3/26 off his 3 overs. In reply, England never looked in a hurry in their run chase and steadily cruised to the target with the help of some sensible batting from Hales and Stokes.

England were off to a flyer in the run-chase as openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales combined to post 75 runs on the board for the first wicket. While Hales took the destructive route, Buttler was more conservative in his approach. However, the England skipper couldn’t convert his start into a big score as he was dismissed on 28 off 23 balls.

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England then went on to lose wickets in a cluster with the likes of Harry Brook (4), Liam Livingstone (4), Moeen Ali (1), and Sam Curran (6) all falling cheaply. However, Stokes kept his composure and held his crease firm on one end to remain unbeaten on 42 off 36 and take his team home.

Australia knocked out of T20 World Cup 2022

England’s four-wicket win agianst Sri Lanka confirmed their spot in the semi-finals as defending champions Australia were knocked out from the competition. It was a must-win game for England and a loss against Sri Lanka would have seen them getting ousted from the tournament with Australia and New Zealand tied on seven points each after five games.

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However, their victory ensured they pipped Australia to the second spot with as many points and a better net run rate of +0.473. New Zealand finished on top in Group 1 with seven points but a net run rate of +2.113 – the best among all six teams in the group.