England's long and arduous winter came to a listless end as Sri Lanka eased into the semi final of the World Cup with a 10-wicket victory over Andrew Strauss's side in Colombo.
England's progress to the quarter-finals was unconvincing, involving a succession of improbably tight finishes against allcomers in Group B.
That was not remotely the case at the Premadasa Stadium as the openers Tillakaratne Dilshan (108 not out) and Upul Tharanga (102 not out) each hit irresistible hundreds in an unbroken stand of 231 to power their team to victory with more than 10 overs to spare.
England had twice defended what had seemed to be sub-par totals to scramble the points required in their stuttering campaign, but at no point did they look remotely likely to repeat the dose against the co-hosts.
Jonathan Trott (86) continued his prolific individual campaign, making himself the tournament's highest run scorer so far to underpin England's 229 for six.
But Tharanga and Dilshan made a mockery of the notion that an awkward chase was in the offing as the 2007 finalists booked a semi-final with New Zealand at the same venue on Tuesday.
For England, there were unwelcome echoes of a similar hammering against the same opponents at the same stage of the competition at Faisalabad in 1996, when Sri Lanka went on to win their maiden World Cup.
Minus at least two first-choice bowling options because of injury, England again simply could not contain the Sri Lankans, who found the ropes 22 times and cleared them three more.
Courtesy: guardian.co.uk
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