Jofra Archer moved into a share of the top spot on the World Cup wicket-taking list with 3-52 as England restricted Sri Lanka to 232-9 in the World Cup group game at Headingly on Friday. Archer's fifth three-wicket haul in six games allowed him to join Australian paceman Mitchell Starc with 15 wickets so far in the tournament.
Fellow fast bowler Mark Wood took 3-40 to move to improve his tournament tally to 12 wickets and wrist-spinner Adil Rashid took two wickets in two balls in a haul of 2-45. Angelo Mathews held the Sri Lanka innings together with an unbeaten 85 from 115 balls. The Sri Lankans started badly after winning the toss and electing to bat, slumping to 3-2 in the third over after Archer had the captain Dimuth Karunaratne caught behind in his first over and Chris Woakes dismissed Kusal Perera two balls later.
Wood ended Sri Lanka's 59-run third-wicket partnership when he dismissed Avishka Fernando, who scored 49 from 39 balls. That brought Mathews to the crease, and he shared a 71-run stand with Kusal Mendis, who scored a patient 46 from 68 balls before Rashid chimed in with the wickets of two Mendis on consecutive deliveries.
He had Kusal Mendis caught at mid-wicket by Eoin Morgan and then took a return catch for a soft-dismissal against Jeevan Mendis as Sri Lanka slipped to 133-5. Dhananjaya de Silva (29) drove the hat-trick ball for two runs and combined with Mathews in a 57-run stand before Archer struck with a slower ball, with Joe Root taking a diving catch at mid-on in the 44th over.
Archer had Thisara Perera (2) caught at third man in his next over and Wood picked up two more tail-end wickets. 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 semi-final berth. The 1996 champions had lost their opening match against New Zealand and then rain robbed them of a chance to fight when two of their games were washed out and Last week, Sri Lanka suffered an 87-run loss against Australia at London .