The bowler Lahiru Kumara was impressive in the World Cup 2023 against England and was named as the Player of the Match.
Lahiru Kumara on victory against England
Sri Lanka was scheduled to play in the 25th ICC World Cup match against England where the former won the match by 8 wickets. Winning the toss, England chose to bat where Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan opened the innings while Dilshan Madushanka opened the bowling attack.
Dawid Malan scored 28 runs and was dismissed by Mathews while Joe Root for 3 runs on a runout
With the dismissal of Jonny Bairstow for 30 runs and sent out by Rajitha, England was down to the last seven wickets scoring only 68 runs on the 14th over. Bairstow helped the side by scoring 43 runs before getting dismissed by Lahiru Kumara.
Jos Buttler and Livingstone were sent out with 8 and 1 runs and dismissed by Lahiru Kumara while Moeen Ali scored 15 runs and dismissed by Mathews. Chris Woakes was sent out on a duck. With Willey’s 14 runs, England scored 156 runs in the 34th over losing all 10 wickets.
Lahiru dismissed three wickets while Rajitha and Mathews dismissed two wickets each. England was all out for a low score total as Sri Lanka bowlers folded the defending champions for low figures.
With a target of 157, Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera opened the innings while Chris Woakes opened the bowling attack. Willey sent Kusal Perera out with four runs, while Pathum Nissanka scored an unbeaten 77* runs on 83 deliveries. Willey dismissed Kusal Mendis for 11 runs while Sadeera Samarawickrama scored 65* runs on 54 deliveries.
On the 26th over, Sri Lanka scored 160 runs losing 2 wickets, and won the match with 8 wickets in hand. Lahiru Kumara was named as the Player of the Match. While speaking after the match Lahiru Kumara said, “Playing a team like England, I’m very happy to perform this way today. Didn’t make a lot of changes after the previous match, the Australia game was an off day for me.”
“I’ve worked hard on my bowling. (On Mathews) Having him back is an inspiration, he gave me a lot of support and was talking to me throughout. (On his role in the team) The plan was to attack the middle overs with disciplined bowling, and we were rewarded with wickets,” he concluded.
Sri Lanka will be playing against Afghanistan on October 30 at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
