ICC CWC 2023: "Worked hard for my performance," says SL's Lahiru after win over England
Oct 26, 2023
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], October 26 : Following his side's eight-wicket win over England in their ICC Cricket World Cup match, Sri Lankan pacer Lahiru Kumara expressed happiness with his match-winning three-wicket haul, saying that the plan was to bowl in middle overs with discipline.
Sri Lanka scored a minor upset in the World Cup and further opened up the tournament as they outclassed defending champions England to win by eight wickets at Bengaluru on Thursday.
"I am very happy with my performance, I have worked really hard for it. I did not do much different from the Australia game, which was an off-day, I just worked hard and it worked out today. As for Angelo, he has a lot of experience, he helped me a lot at mid-off. It was really great to have him back. The plan was to hit the middle overs with discipline, we stuck to the plan and were rewarded with wickets," said Lahiru in a post-match presentation.
Coming to the match against Sri Lanka, England opted to bat first and were bundled out for 156 runs in just 33.2 overs. Ben Stokes (43), Jonny Bairstow (30) and Dawid Malan (28) put some decent contributions with the bat.
Lahiru Kumara (3/35), Angelo Matthews (2/14) and Kasun Rajitha (2/36) were the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka.
In the chase of 157, England did lose two quick wickets to David Willey but fifties from Pathum Nissanka (77*) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (65*) helped them cruise to an eight-wicket win in just 25.4 overs.
Lahiru Kumara was given the 'Player of the Match' award for his match-winning spell.
With this loss, England has lost its fourth match in five games and are at the second-last spot in the points table. Sri Lanka has its second win in five matches and with four points, are now at fifth spot in the table. England is pretty much out of the tournament, especially with in-form teams like India, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia having more games in hand.
