SL defeat England by 9 wickets

In their third defeat in the tournament so far, England bowlers could not defend 309 runs for the loss of six wickets as the Asian side reached the target of 312 runs by losing a wicket in 47.2 overs.

Sri Lanka's Lahiru Thirimanne (139 *) and Kumar Sangakkara (117*) hit unbeaten centuries to seal the victory for their side.

Sri Lanka commenced the run chase on a positive note with Thirimanne and Tillakaratne Dilshan (44) adding 100 runs on the opening wicket partnership.

Moeen Ali broke the partnership in the  19th over by taking the wicket of Dilshan. However, Sri Lanka maintained the momentum and reached the target quite comfortably at the end.

The English bowlers failed to torment the Sri Lankans who were seen playing the opponents quite comfortably.

Earlier, riding on Joe Root's 121 and Ian Bell's 49, England had posted 309 runs for the loss of six wickets.

Root played sensibly to score the fourth ODI hundred of his career.He hit 14 boundaries and two sixes in his knock.

All the Sri Lankan bowlers gave away runs with Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Suranga Lakmal, Dilshan, Rangana Herath and Thisara Perera taking a wicket each.

England will need to win the  remaining of their matches in the tournament to qualify to the next round as they have lost three matches so far out of the four they have played. The side currently stand on the sixth spot in the Pool A where Sri Lanka stand at the second spot (6) after New Zealand (8).

England captain Eoin Morgan said after the match: ""We certainly lost it with the ball... Today we bowled a bad ball every over. Which you get punished for."

Brief scorecard:

England 309 for 6 in 50 overs (J Root 121; A Mathews 43-1; T Dilshan 1-35)

Sri Lanka 312 for one in 47.2 overs (L Thirimanne 139, K Sangakkara 117; M Ali 1-50)