Butter-fingered Sri Lanka crawled back in the batting powerplay as Jonathan Trott's fighting 86 and a chancy 50 by Eoin Morgan took England to a decent 229 for six in their World Cup quarterfinal at the R Premadasa stadium here Saturday.
Trott and Morgan (50 off 55 balls), who got three lives, added 91 runs for the fourth wicket and England were looking good to reach a score of 250-plus. But their progress was halted by the batting powerplay they took in the 43rd over. England lost two wickets and could score only 23 runs.
Electing to bat, England made a cautious start and only 17 runs came in the first five overs and 32 in the mandatory powerplay of 10 overs.
With three frontline spinners in the side, skipper Sangakkara chose to bowl part-timer Tillakaratne Dilshan to share the new ball with Lasith Malinga.
Dilshan troubled England captain Andrew Strauss (5) with his quickish spin, though Ian Bell (25), who replaced Matt Prior at the top of the batting order, appeared comfortable as he rotated strike and even struck a four each off Malinga and Angelo Mathews.
Strauss, who has been in good form in the tournament, threw his wicket away unable to cope with Dilshan's restrictive line and length and was bowled going for a reckless heave.
Trott, England's mainstay in the tournament, then added 64 runs with Ravi Bopara (31) for the third wicket.
Muttiah Muralitharan (2 for 54), who is playing his swansong international tournament, was introduced immediately after the drinks in the 19th over amid huge cheers from the crowd. He struck to dismiss Bopara who missed a full toss sweeping to be lbw.
Trott and Morgan then dug in even as the three Sri Lankan spinners made life difficult for them. But the good work of the bowlers was undone by some sloppy fielding.
Morgan was dropped thrice. Thilan Samaraweera put down a sitter at deep point off Ajantha Mendis when he was at 17.
Muralitharan, too, felt the heat of poor fielding. First Mathews and then Rangana Herath dropped Morgan in the 39th over.
Mathews dropped the easiest of catches when he fumbled at deep cover. A ball later Herath could not hold onto a Morgan slice at backward point and Muralitharan was livid.
England were 182/3 when they took the powerplay and immediately lost two wickets.
Morgan tried to clear the covers off Malinga but this time Mathews made no mistake.
Graeme Swann was out the very first ball he faced, going for a reverse sweep and Mendis (1-34) won the appeal for lbw. It made one wonder why England thought it wise to send Swann when an explosive batsman like Luke Wright was padded up.
The two wickets arrested the run flow and Sri Lanka, having got their grip back in the match, succeeded in slowing things down.
When Trott hit Herath for a four in the 48th over, it was a boundary that came after 50 balls.
Trott was out in the next over trying to clear the boundary off Muralitharan and Mahela Jayawardene judged the catch in the deep nicely.
Trott struck only two fours in his 115-ball innings, but held the England innings together.
Matt Prior made 22 off 19 balls as England managed to get past 200 and in the end they managed just about enough runs to make a match of it.
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