Alex Hales gave a perfect start and Ben Stokes played a top knock in the end to help England survive the Sri Lanka scare in the death overs and win the match by four wickets to reach the semifinal of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2022
Nissanka (67 off 45 balls) posted a solid half-century on the board, but barely got support from other Lankan batters. Mark Wood (3/26) was the pick of the bowlers for England.
Sri Lanka bowled superbly in the first ten overs, reducing the Kiwi team to 15/3 inside the powerplay. The team had the opportunity to get rid of Glenn Phillips too but Pathum Nissanka dropped a sitter at long-off to give him a reprieve.
The explosive batter scored 51* off just 25 balls to help India post 179/2 in its 20 overs. In the process, Suryakumar took over Mohammad Rizwan of Pakistan who was at the top of the scoring charts with 825 runs from 19 innings with a superb average of 51.56 in 2022.
Stoinis reached his half-century in just 17 balls and finished with an 18-ball 59* much to the delight of the Australian fans at home. In this knock decorated by four boundaries and six sixes, he made a mockery of Sri Lankan bowlers including Lahiru Kumara, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theeksh
With this win, Australia is in fourth position in the points table with 2 points, one place below Asian champions Sri Lanka, who are in third with two points.
A 69-run stand for second wicket between Nissanka (40) and Silva (26) kept Lankans in a good position but the Aussies made comeback with some quick wickets, exploiting Lankans' tendency to hit loose shots
Spinner Karthik Meiyappan's hat-trick went in vain as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sunk to a 79-run defeat against Sri Lanka in their Group A round one match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022