World Cup 2015: Lanka just two good as England suffer third defeat

WELLINGTON: The Wellington airport on Sunday morning was sea of blue -Sri Lankan supporters from across New Zealand had gathered to support their team.
By afternoon, they were treated to a superb exhibition of batting by Lahiru Thirimanne and Kumar Sangakkara as Sri Lanka chased down a target of 310 in 47.2 overs to notch up a nine-wicket win.
With three wins, Sri Lanka have all but sealed a quarterfinal spot from Group A while England could be locked in a battle for the fourth spot with Bangladesh.
Joe Root (121 off 108 balls) had given England a platform to fight on a flat Wellington deck, but the Lankan batting was just too good. Thirimanne, though, was dropped twice - once on 2 by Root and then on 98 by Moeen Ali, but that doesn't take anything away from a clinical performance.
If Thirimanne (139 no off 143 balls) was the anchor, there was a Sangakkara (117 no off 86 balls) at the other end who was the supreme aggressor.
The Lankan legend, following up on his match-winning effort against Bangladesh, middled everything and the English bowlers just didn't know how to stop the run flow.
There was no lateral movement off the pitch for the English bowlers and they looked at the mercy of the Lankan batsmen.
Both Sangakkara and Thirimanne kept coming on the front-foot and played the trademark drives through the line.
Once the trump-card James Anderson was rendered ineffective, it had to be Steven Finn with his pace.But Thirimanne, Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan handled all of that with some excellent back-foot play.
Dilshan (44 off 55 balls), in fact, played a significant role in the run chase as well. His first-wicket partnership with Thirimanne yielded 100 off 18.5 overs, setting it up for Sangakkara to yield his magic after that. Sanga found the gaps effortlessly and ran brilliantly between the wickets, making the English attack look pedestrian.
Once Sri Lanka went into the second PowerPlay with nine wickets in hand, it was really a lost cause for the English bowlers. The field had to be brought up and both Sangakkara and Thirimmane found the boundary at ease to take the game completely away from England.
"There was one bad ball every over. It's difficult to win if the bowling lets you down," England captain Eoin Morgan said after the match.
The England batting, though, had found form with Root playing an innings of courage and character.
At one point, it seemed England would have to be satisfied with something in the range of 275, but it was Root's innovative ways that gave them the momentum.
Even as he played the conventional cricket shots, the Yorkshire man even swept and reverse swept medium-pacer Thissara Perera to boost the total. Lasith Malinga, too, was often off the mark, allowing the English batsmen to take liberty. But with Sanga on fire, all that didn't prove costly in the end.