Flakier than a freshly baked paratha on Bengaluru’s teeming Church Street and gobbled up gleefully by Sri Lanka, this England display was not so much a case of their World Cup crown slipping at the Chinnaswamy Stadium as a full‑blown abdication.
In a must-win game to keep already wafer-thin hopes alive, the good old positives were early and fleeting. Jos Buttler won the toss and, after twice seeing the notion of being a chasing side torched, elected to bat. There was then a first-ball reprieve for Jonny Bairstow, Sri Lanka declining to review an lbw, and a 45-run stand with Dawid Malan.
