England’s semi-final spot came down to 12 from 12 balls. England had Ben Stokes. Sri Lanka had the sluggish pitch. Every pacer was finger-cutting the ball, every spinner had already loaded the pressure to reduce England from 75 for 0 in 7 overs to 129 for 6 in 18. Stokes tapped around, so did Chris Woakes – – they were doing it in singles, just like the last-wicket pair of Wilfred Rhodes and George Hirst’s cry of ‘we will get this in singles’ in that famous Ashes Test of 1902 – the ‘Jessop’s match’ as it’s called in cricketing lore. Tap, tap, tap and now five were needed the final over.
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Lahiru Kumara’s first ball, yet another slower cutter but with width outside off, was cut away by Stokes for 2. A bouncer was patted down to third man for a single. More chats and gardening down the track by the batsmen. A swing and a miss from Woakes as a slower bouncer went through to the ‘keeper. But in trying to reprise the ball, Kumara would offer width and Woakes brought up a big smile in Stokes’s face with a fierce square-cut boundary. Game over – Sri Lanka’s and Australia’s.
At 71 for 1 in 8 overs with the aggressive Pathum Nissanka raising a mighty scare, England must have been worried about the potential target they were going to be set. “Do it for Kangaroos” banner fluttered in the SCG stands for obvious reasons: If Sri Lanka win, Australia would go through.
Enter the late Zimbabwe player Kevin Curran’s son Sam. This pitch was right up his alley. While the pacers Mark Wood and Chris Woakes had bled runs, England would cotton on to his slower cutters. Off his second ball, a slower one, he took out Dhananjay Silva.
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It didn’t take long for Buttler to figure out the way ahead on the slightly slow track. Ben Stokes came on with his mixture of cutters and bouncers. Liam Livingston with his unique mix: legspin to right-handers, off breaks to the lefties, and Adil Rashid and Mooed Ali doing their stuff. The run-rate began to drop, wickets started to go. On air, first to sense the momentum shift was England’s greatest white-ball captain Eoin Morgan.
Here is where England’s bowling variety helped: as many as 7 bowlers rolled their arms over.
But here is where Sri Lanka also would have hoped despite trundling down to a par total. They have the spinners to exploit and it was clear that the game would be decided by them.
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But before they could be unleashed, England’s openers Alex Hales and Jos Buttler went all out against the new ball to loot 75 runs in 7 overs when Buttler fell. Courtesy a sharp dipping ball from Wanindu Hasaranga and an equally sharp effort at deep midwicket from Chamika Karunaratne who took a diving low catch. Hasaranga proved why he is the tournament’s highest wicket taker with another slow dipper and Hales was far too early with his sweep and toe-ended an absolute dolly to the smiling bowler.
Dhananjay de Silva strangled further with his off breaks that had begun to grip. And England would lose 4 wickets to reach 111 for 5 in 14.3 overs. The last 33 balls had seen just 29 runs for those 4 wickets. The Lions’ flags began to roar in the stands. Kangaroo dolls began to float up when Mooen Ali lunged into a drive but was beaten by the slowness and gently shovelled it to the cover fielder.
But Ben Stokes, who had his left leg heavily strapped prior to the game itself, was embossing himself on the game. Apart from two boundaries, a cover drive and a lofted extra cover drive, he largely dealt in pushes and punches. Tuk, tuk… runs began to come.
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Along with him was that man Curran, who tapped the ball around to rotate the strike. If they didn’t lose their heads, a spot in the semis was their’s for taking.
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With 13 needed from 13, Curran went for a hook but was pouched at fine-leg and at the dressing room, Liam Livingstone would bang the chair in frustration.
But Stokes ensured there wouldn’t be any more drama.
The man who had raised Sri Lanka’s hopes was Nissanka. Just off the second ball of the game, he had swung Ben Stokes over backward squareleg boundary. Then off the final ball of the third over, when the fastest bowler at the world cup Mark Wood banged one in short outside off, Nissanka stirred. Both his feet were in the air even as he arched back to upper cut it over third man boundary. Then Nissanka flicked Chris Woakes over a startled Harry Brook at deep square-leg for a six. The shot had seemed like a gentle flat flick that Brook had run in but to his surprise it kept flying over.
Jos Buttler tried spin to stop him. No luck. Down he went on his knee to deposit Liam Livingstone in the final ball of the 7th over long-on. But the wickets suddenly started to fall and he started to slow down a touch to see if he can lead a revival. In the 16th over, he went down the track to Adil Rashid but couldn’t clear long-on. In some ways, it was the beginning of the end for Sri Lanka, though their spinners tried, the 142-run target wasn’t enough especially after the start from Buttler and Hales, and sealed after Stokes showed he wasn’t in mood to throw it away.
