It was a day of disappointment and frustration for the English cricket team as they suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in the Cricket World Cup.
The defending champions had high hopes going into the match, having won the toss and elected to bat first.
However, their top order failed to deliver, with Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan only managing to put on a 45-run partnership before falling to Sri Lanka’s bowlers.
From there, it was a steady stream of wickets for England, with only Ben Stokes managing to put up any kind of resistance with a score of 43.
The rest of the team faltered, with six players failing to reach double figures and England being bowled out for a paltry 156.
The bowling attack started off well, with David Willey taking two early wickets to raise England’s hopes.
However, it was not to be, as Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama put on a masterclass in batting, with an incredible partnership of 137 runs that saw Sri Lanka cruise to an eight-wicket victory in just 26 overs.
England’s captain Jos Buttler was left to reflect on what went wrong, admitting that his team had not played anywhere near their best.
With just two points from five matches, England’s World Cup campaign is now in danger of being cut short.
They will need to regroup and come up with a plan if they hope to turn their fortunes around in the remaining four matches and keep their hopes of reaching the semi-finals alive.
