• Super 8s: England, 146-9, beat Sri Lanka, 95, by 51 runs

• Will Jacks scores useful 21 and takes three key wickets

During the first hour of this match the grass banks on each side of the wicket filled both in number and belief. Dot balls set off boisterous celebrations, wickets provoked delirium. An increasingly joyous crowd whooped as England’s batters trooped dolefully to and from the square. Mexican waves rippled around a stadium already – and prematurely as it turned out – in full celebration.

England were restricted to 146 for nine, an innings that revealed a few demons in the pitch and several, it seemed, in their heads. Again England faltered against spin. Jos Buttler remains in a pitiful search of form. Tom Banton was run out seeking a make-believe single, a victim of his own scrambled decision-making. Jacob Bethell, rather than giving himself a few moments to get the measure of Maheesh Theekshana, attacked the spinner’s first ball of the game and sent a leading edge to short third. The crowd delighted in every mis-step. Nothing about England’s innings made their total look remotely defendable. They won, in the end, by 51 runs.