Ben Stokes kept his composure to lead England into the T20 World Cup semi-finals – and a likely meeting with India – after they flirted with capitulating to Sri Lanka’s band of spinners at Sydney.
England needed to win their final Super 12s contest to pip Australia to second place in Group 1 and reach the last four but, chasing 142, they slipped from 75 without loss to 129 for six with 12 balls left. But Stokes found the gaps and ran hard to finish unbeaten on 42 off 36 balls before Chris Woakes’s cut for four got England over the line with four wickets and two balls to spare in a nail-biting finish.
