Salt, Jacks stun Sri Lanka to help England register emphatic victory

Match Overview

Sri Lanka and England locked horns in the 42nd match, their first of the Super Eights of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy on Sunday, February 22. Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka won the toss and elected to bowl first.

England openers Phil Salt and Jos Buttler found the going tricky initially. The latter was undone by Dunith Wellalage in the fourth over as Sri Lanka opened their account. New man Bethell could not last long either as the left-hander fell victim to spin again. England ended the powerplay at a modest 37/2 as only Salt was able to keep the scoreboard ticking.

The wicket appeared to be a difficult one to play strokes on with freedom and the batters succumbed to its whims at regular intervals. Even Tom Banton and captain Harry Brook could not really get going as England strolled to 68/4 at the halfway mark.

Set batter Salt and Will Jacks took the mantle and produced important runs from their bats. The opener reached his eighth half century off 36 balls in the 13th over and played good hands with Sam Curran and Jacks. 

Meanwhile, the story of the innings - wickets at regular intervals - continued till the 20th over as England managed to get an under-par looking 146/9 only. 

The home team had a disastrous start as they lost half their side inside the powerplay with just 34 runs on the board as Jofra Archer and Jacks ran riot. Though the required run rate was not an issue, the wickets column was and the Lankans did not need any more blows. But, that was not going to be the case as Liam Dawson and Adil Rashid conjured wickets at regular intervals after the powerplay to bowl out the home team for a mere 95 in the 17th over.

Captain Shanaka was the lone bright spot as the right-hander scored 30 runs off 24 balls. Meanwhile, England won the game by a substantial margin of 51 runs, and remarkably, registered their 12th straight victory against Sri Lanka in T20Is. Moreover, the home team's total was their third-lowest in T20 World Cup history.

Top run-scorer of the match

Top wicket-taker of the match

Player of the Match

Will Jacks

Jacks is in good form with both bat and ball. The 27-year-old came out to bat at number seven when the important partnership between Salt and Curran was broken. At that stage, the team needed someone to carry on with the momentum and the right-hander did more than that with his 21 runs off 14 balls.

Jacks was not done yet. The off spinner rocked the Lankan top order as he scalped three crucial wickets in the powerplay itself. The Lankan innings, as a result, was in a disarray and Jacks was the chief architect of it.

Incidentally, the Englishman has won three POTM awards in five matches in this tournament so far.

Turning Point

The dismantling of the top five of the Lankan batting line-up by Archer and Jacks turned the game completely in favour of England. The total of 146 looked far from a winning one, but the duo made it a tough one with their strikes. Sending half the side back to the pavilion in the powerplay really turned the game around as England capitalised on their start to register a famous win.

What the captains said

Winning Team Captain, Harry Brook (ENG)

"A beautiful birthday present. I thought we played exceptionally there and to get over the line and bowl them out for less than 100 is an awesome effort. I didn't think there were really any demons on the pitch. I think the spinners on both sides used the pace really well, and that's what brought a lot of wickets. We saw how it was behaving in the first innings and lack of pace was creating chances. So we had a good chat about that before going out and we adapted to the surface really well."

"(On the wicket) It was just slow. It was hard to time, and I thought Salty played an exceptional innings there to get 60 with everybody fumbling around him as well. Not the fluent Phil Salt that everybody knows, but he managed to get us to a very good score there and a couple of partnerships at the end as well. It was a hell of a performance."

Losing Team Captain, Dasun Shanaka (SL)

"It's very disappointing, but at the same time, we had a lot of positives in the ball. So I think we kept them towards a total which was at least 20 runs under par. I expected my players to bat well. (On the reasons for the low-scoring contest) A combination of all the things. I think the pitch played well. Certainly, it was a bit slow in the first innings, but with the lights on, it settled a bit. We played badly. All the bowlers in our side bowled well, it's not that they (England) bowled really well. We played some rash shots in critical intervals. In this World Cup, we tried with five main bowlers. I mean, including all-rounder. So it is a nice attack to have, so I can restrict most of the sides to lower scores."

"(On the chase) The discussion was to take it deep. We have played a lot of cricket in this sort of conditions, it was about taking it deep and taking the positive options and the right options, which we didn't take. So eventually it's one bad game which is not affordable in a World Cup, but we need to bounce back in the next couple of games."