With just one win, Sri Lanka are currently at the sixth spot with four points and will have to win rest of their four matches to salvage hopes of a semifinal berth.
Eoin Morgan
Still recovering from their 87-run drubbing against Australia, former champions Sri Lanka will now face a tough battle for survival when they lock horns with a dominant England in their World Cup fixture here Friday.
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With just one win, Sri Lanka are currently at the sixth spot with four points and will have to win rest of their four matches to salvage hopes of a semifinal berth.
The 1996 champions had lost their opening match against New Zealand and then rain robbed them off a chance to fight when two of their games were washed out.
Last week, Sri Lanka suffered a 87-run loss against Australia at London and it will take a special performance for the Island nation to keep themselves afloat for the knockout stage when they come across hosts England, who have looked simply unstoppable.
England are placed comfortably at the second spot with four wins from five games, the only blemish being their loss to Pakistan.
Eoin Morgan and his men have emerged as the best batting side this World Cup as they have blown away their opponents, amassing 300 plus scores in four of the five games -- two of them being 386/6 against Bangladesh and 397/6 against Afghanistan.
Sri Lanka will have to play out of their skins with the onus resting on the pace duo of Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Pradeep.
In batting, Sri Lanka too have to address their vulnerability in the middle order which saw them collapse in every match so far.
Twitter was abuzz with preparations for the match, with some users asking is a 500 score possible if England bat first:
Fair to say I think a large majority of people will be hoping England bat first today. #500 #ENGvSL
— Niks (@Air_Nik23) June 21, 2019
Right England..bat 1st, score 350, hit 20 6s.
— Michael Minty (@MichaelMinty63) June 21, 2019
Thank you#ENGvSL#RaidtheTAB #Super6s
Hope to see a good match today #ENGvSL. Yday was quite boring wid minnows bdesh loosing it. #AUSvBAN
— Bharadwaj (@santravendor) June 21, 2019
Both Avishka Fernando and Jeevan Mendis - most likely to make final XI for Sri Lanka in place of Lahiru Thirimanne and Milinda Siriwardana.
— Damith Weerasinghe (@Damith1994) June 21, 2019
20 minutes to go for the toss. #ENGvSL #LionsRoar #CWC19 @ThePapareSports @OfficialSLC
This next four #CWC19 games for SL will see either Angelo Mathews crashing and burning his career or reviving it. #ENGvSL
— Cham J (@Uppercut07) June 21, 2019
Cracking view from our box at Headingley. Blue sky, green trees, white of the new stand. And possibly the warmest day of the year so far for #EngvSL #cwc19 @ Emerald Headingley Stadium https://t.co/h7YaWy2Zts
— Eleanor Oldroyd (@EllyOldroyd) June 21, 2019
With inputs from PTI
Squads:
England:Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes,James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Dhananjaya de Silva, Nuwan Pradeep, Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Mendis, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Perera, Thisara Perera, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay.
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