World Cup win/loss record of England vs Sri Lanka:
■ Total matches played: 8
■ The England cricket team won: 6
■ The Sri Lanka cricket team won: 2
One-day international win/loss record of the England vs Sri Lanka
■ Total matches played: 44
■ The England cricket team won: 23 matches
■ The Sri Lanka cricket team won: 21
The fourth Quarter-final of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup will be played between the England cricket team and the Sri Lanka cricket team at the Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. Sri Lanka’s journey to the quarter-finals has been very easy; they won 4 of their matches, lost just 1 match to Pakistan and the match with Australia was washed away due to rain.
But the journey for England has been a rollercoaster ride. Their first match against India got tied; they lost matches against Ireland and Bangladesh and won matches against South Africa and West Indies. Here are some notable points which should be kept in mind regarding this quarter-final.
Batting Strength and Weakness:
England’s batting is the main strength of their team. Jonathan Trott and Andrew Strauss are one of the most successful batsmen in this tournament with more than 300 runs against their name. Ian Bell and Matt Prior have also supported the England cricket team’s batting lineup well.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, has one of the best top-order batsmen in their team. Their skipper Kumar Sangakkara is the leading run-scorer in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. If Sri Lanka gets a solid start then they can be destructive with the bat. The only problem with the Sri Lankan batting is their middle-order, they don’t have a reliable player in the middle-order.
Batting Strength and Weakness:
England has one of the weakest bowling line-ups and it was infuriated after the injury of their striker bowler Stuart Broad. Graeme Swann has been the most successful bowler for the England cricket team in this world cup. The situation is different for the Sri Lankan cricket team who has a well-balanced bowling lineup consisting of pacers and spinners.
Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis are the most feared spinners in the world and they have done well in group matches. Lasith Malinga has been outstanding with the old ball and has even managed to pick his 2nd hat-trick in the world cups.
Conclusion:
Both teams are balanced sides with different strengths and weaknesses. Sri Lanka may have the advantage of the home ground, and home crowd but England will never easily give away the match as we have seen earlier in the group matches.
Result: Sri Lanka defeated England by 10 wickets to qualify for the semi-final.
