The Latest: Sri Lanka's Malinga gets 50th World Cup wicket

By Associated Press 22 June 2019, 12:00AM

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Day 23 of the Cricket World Cup (all times local):

5:10 p.m.

Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga has become the just the fourth bowler to take 50 wickets in Cricket World Cup history.

Malinga took four wickets in his first seven overs against England to reach the milestone and have top-ranked England in trouble chasing 233 to win their group game at Headingley. He reached 50 when he had Joe Root caught behind to a ball edging down legside on 57.

He's the only active bowler in the elite group. Australia paceman Glenn McGrath has the record with 71, followed by Sri Lanka offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan with 68 and Pakistan swing bowler Wasim Akram with 55.

Malinga is playing his 26th World Cup game and has best figures of 6-38. He famously took four wickets with four consecutive deliveries in a World Cup game against South Africa in 2007.

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4:20 p.m.

England is making slow progress as it pursues 233 to beat Sri Lanka after Lasith Malinga took two early wickets.

Joe Root is unbeaten on 47 and England is 91-3 after 25 overs at Headingley, only three days after trouncing Afghanistan and amassing a tournament-high 397-6 at Old Trafford.

Sri Lanka was 114-3 at the same stage after winning the toss and batting first and was 232-9 after 50 overs.

Root has scored two centuries and two half centuries in England's first five games. Top-ranked England, aiming to retake top spot in the World Cup standings from Australia, has already lost the wickets of openers Jonny Bairstow (0) and James Vince (14) and skipper Eoin Morgan (21), who blazed 17 sixes in his 148 against Afghanistan.

Malinga trapped Bairstow on the second ball of the innings and had Vince caught at slip in the seventh over in a return of 2-27 from five overs.

Isuru Udana claimed a return catch off a low full-toss to dismiss Morgan.

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2 p.m.

Jofra Archer moved into a share of top spot on the World Cup wicket-taking list with 3-52 as England restricted Sri Lanka to 232-9 in the group game at Headingley.

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 a defiant, unbeaten 85 from 115 balls.

The Sri Lankans started badly after winning 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.

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12:30 p.m.

Sri Lanka has labored to 114-3 halfway through its allotted 50 overs in the Cricket World Cup group game against top-ranked England.

The Sri Lankans started badly after Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and batted, losing two wickets in three deliveries to slump to 3-2 in the third over.

Karunaratne was caught behind off of the last ball of Jofra Archer's first over — the second of the innings — and Kusal Perera was caught at third man off Chris Woakes.

The Sri Lankans have recovered with two 50-plus partnerships.

Kusal Mendis shared a 59-run third-wicket stand with Avishka Fernando, who scored 49 from 39 balls before guiding a ball from Mark Wood directly to third man, and an unbeaten 52 for the fourth wicket with Angelo Mathews.

At the 25-over mark, Mendis was unbeaten on 41 and Mathews was on 21.

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10:15 a.m.

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and elected to bat first against top-ranked England in the Cricket World Cup group game at Headingley.

Sri Lanka made two changes to the lineup that lost to Australia, with Avishka Fernando and Jeevan Mendis coming in to bolster the batting.

England retained the same XI that beat Afghanistan earlier this week in Manchester, where it posted 397-6 — the highest total of the tournament so far — and captain Eoin Morgan hit a record 17 sixes in his 148.

Morgan said the Headingley wicket was likely to assist the spinners, giving veteran allrounder Moeen Ali the chance to play his 100th one-day international for England

England can regain the lead in the standings with a victory, on run-rate over Australia. Sri Lanka has one win, two losses and two washed out games so far.

Lineups:

England: Jonny Bairstow, James Vince, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (captain), Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood.

Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (captain), Kusal Perera, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Jeevan Mendis, Thisara Perera, Isuru Udana, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Pradeep.

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9:30 a.m.

Top-ranked England has a chance to retake top position in the Cricket World Cup standings by beating Sri Lanka at Headingley on Friday.

The home team is coming off a massive win over Afghanistan at Old Trafford, where skipper Eoin Morgan belted a record 17 sixes and Mooen Ali completed a record 25 for the England innings when he cleared the boundary on the penultimate ball.

England's total of 397-6 was also the biggest so far at this tournament, and the sixth-highest ever at a World Cup.

Moeen is set to play against Sri Lanka for his milestone 100th ODI.

The Sri Lankans, World Cup champions in 1996 and runners-up in 2007 and 2011, have posted a solitary win — over Afghanistan — and lost to both of the 2015 finalists — defending champion Australia and New Zealand.

But Sri Lanka is still in contention for a playoff spot because of the two points it has picked up from two washed-out games.

England leads 6-4 in World Cup meetings between the countries, but Sri Lanka has won the last three.

The weather forecast is for a mostly cloudy but fine day with a top of 18 Celsius (64).

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More AP cricket: www.apnews.com/cricket and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

By Associated Press 22 June 2019, 12:00AM

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