In a dramatic contest, England defended an under-par total with aplomb by registering a huge 51-run win over Sri Lanka in Pallekele on Sunday (February 22). Put into bat on a slow, turning surface, England's total of 146 seemed to be far from ideal at the halfway mark but their bowlers dominated proceedings to shoot out the Lankans for a paltry total of 95.
Phil Salt's 40-ball 62 was a freak knock on a pitch where no other batter managed to find any kind of rhythm. His approach, though, was unlike his generic strategy of all-out attack and that is how batters needed to bat on this deck. Instead, all batters except Salt tried to blast their way out of trouble, only to self-destruct.
Salt's 36-ball fifty was the second-slowest of his international career and it tells you how he realised that this pitch required application than mindless slogging. For the Lankans, though, nobody showed that mindset at all and captain Dasun Shanaka's 24-ball 30 was more about damage control than anything else.
It was a game dominated by the spinners. For Sri Lanka, Dunith Wellalage (3-26) and Maheesh Theekshana (2-21) ruled the roost before Will Jacks (3-22), Liam Dawson (2-27) and Adil Rashid (2-13) all weighed in for England. In hindsight, Sri Lanka's third spinner Dushan Hemantha proved to be difference between the two teams as he leaked 38 runs off his four overs. Still, 146 was a very chaseable total.
Here is the list of records from this game:
- Phil Salt's 36-ball fifty is the second slowest of his T20I career
- Sri Lanka have created three direct hit run outs in T20 World Cup 2026, most by any team
- England's total of 37 was their lowest PowerPlay score of T20 World Cup 2026
- Sri Lanka's total of 95 is their third lowest in T20 World Cup history
- The 51-run win is England's second-biggest win in T20 World Cups
- 146 is the second-lowest total defended successfully against Sri Lanka in T20 World Cup history
