England vs Sri Lanka LIVE: Cricket World Cup result and reaction as Buttler’s men suffer another heavy defeat

Jos Buttler could only look on from behind the stumps as England’s World Cup dreams lay in tatters around him on the turf in Bengaluru following his side’s eight-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka.

All the fighting talk, all the tinkering and changes, the whispers before the tournament of defending the title. Any lingering chance of qualification remains all but mathematically impossible as England slid to their fourth defeat from their opening five matches.

In history this may become a World Cup to be overlooked - as was the case in 2015 which led to the famous “white-ball reset” and four years later the title - but in the immediate aftermath there are questions to be answered.

“Sri Lanka played really well, really outplayed us.” said England captain, Jos Buttler. “There were a number of their players who played really well.

“Performance is the obvious thing. A lot of us, including myself, are not performing to the level that you expect of yourself or demand of yourself as an individual.

“There’s is no golden bullet, that one thing that if we did it then everything is right again. We’re just not performing to the level we need and expect to compete and play our best.

“Whoever we play next, we want to focus on ourselves as individuals and as a team. Absolutely keep asking questions to find out what the problems are and try to fix them.

“There is a hell of a lot of pride and a lot of guys who are disappointed with the way they’ve played. Speaking for myself, you feel that as much as captain. As an individual, you want to perform at your best from here on in in this tournament.

“Whatever happens from here in the tournament, we want to play good, hard games of cricket and play well well, get back to playing the way we know we can.

“It looks like we’ll need a few miracles and things to go our way to progress further in the tournament but the games we have left, we want to play the cricket we know we can play.”

England’s excruciating World Cup defence was all but over after yet another shambolic defeat, this time against a Sri Lanka side led by their former head coach Chris Silverwood.

The 2019 champions turned in a meek, error-strewn performance with the bat, blown away for just 156 in Bengaluru, and barely fared any better with the ball as their opponents breezed home by eight wickets.

Jos Buttler’s side have now lost four of their five games by heavy margins – beaten by New Zealand, Afghanistan, South Africa and now Sri Lanka – and can start booking an early trip home despite having four fixtures still to play in a torturous group stage.

Reaction from Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis: “I think net run rate going up is good for our team. We’ve done really well, the bowling team did a really good job.

“We have another four games left, I think if we win three games back to back we can make the semi-finals. I think we can do that.

“Kumara did really well today. He’s the main fast bowler in Sri Lanka, he bowled really well in his first three overs, he helped us control, I’m really happy.

“Matthews is so experienced, he tells us so many things in the middle. He bowled really well. He plays the situation, I’m very lucky to play with him.

“Today we fielded excellently. Everyone did well. In the next four matches if everyone does the same thing we’ll be more confident of reaching the semi-finals.”

Buttler faced more questions at a press conference following the game. He spoke about how frustrating and disappointing this tournament has been so far: “Obviously incredibly disappointing and incredibly frustrating.

“We’re not just losing, we’re losing by a long way and playing well short of our best. A huge disappointment.

“It’s never for a lack of effort, hard work or preparation. Look around the room, it’s not a lack of talent. We’ve got a lot of fantastic cricketers. It’s a huge frustration, this tournament has gone nowhere near the way we wanted it to.

“If there was one golden egg that we were missing then you’d hope to see that. But there is no secret, no one else can score your own runs or take your own wickets.

“That starts with the captain and I’ve been a long way short of my best. As a leader, you want to lead through your own performance and I’ve not been able to do that.

“You get on the plan to come to India in a really good position as a team, everything going to plan and it’s just not worked at all.”

More from Jos Buttler who says that the tournament hasn’t gone the way the team expected.

“It’s never through a lack of effort,” he said. “This tournament has gone nowhere near the way we wanted to. There is no secret.

“I’ve been a long way short of my best. As a leader you want to lead from the front and I’ve not been able to do that.”

Post-match reaction from England captain Jos Buttler who said: “It’s incredibly tough, an incredibly disappointing tournament. As captain, you feel that a lot.

“We’ve been short of our best by a very long way. I’m disappointed for myself and the boys that we’ve not shown a good account of ourselves.

“That’s the question we’re trying to answer. There’s no clear answer. If there was one golden nugget that we’re not doing then we’d pick that up.

“I can’t fault the guys’ efforts, we’re just a long way short of our best. As captain, you want to lead from the front and play well. I’ve been a long way short of my best and that’s filtered through the rest.”

Here’s how Sri Lanka finished off the match in style:

Former England captain Michael Atherton said the current one-day side could be “at the end of the cycle” after another poor batting display at the World Cup.

England won the toss and elected to bat in a must-win group game against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru, but collapsed to 156 all out with nearly seven overs remaining.

Jos Buttler’s side never looked capable of mounting an imposing target despite Moeen Ali’s pre-match assertion that England would play aggressive cricket with no fear.

England have won only one of their five matches in this tournament. They are ninth in the table, above only the Netherlands.

Sri Lanka go fifth, two points off the top four and they will be starting to think about reaching the final four.