Twitter Reactions: England win in a nail biting thriller after Mathews' blitz

At the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi, England faced Sri Lanka in a crucial Group 1 encounter of the World T20 2016. Angelo Mathews won the toss as Sri Lanka opted to bowl first. Dasun Shanaka came in place of Nuwan Kulasekara for Sri Lanka while Alex Hales came in place of Vince for the Brits.

Batting first England lost an early wicket as the veteran Rangana Herath got the wicket of Alex Hales for nothing. Jason Roy and Joe Root managed to take England past the 50-run mark. Once Jos Buttler came in, he displayed some fantastic pinch and scored 66 from 37 balls. He hit 8 boundaries and 2 sixes. The skipper Eoin Morgan also played a good cameo to provide the finishing touch as they propelled the total to 171/4 in their quota for 20 overs.

On the other hand, Sri Lanka lost 4 wickets with just 15 runs on the board. The whole top order was rattled as the Poms looked easing towards a comfortable victory. However, Angelo Mathews played a wonderful knock of 73 runs of 54 balls. He was provided good support by Kapugedera 30 (27) first and Thisara Perera 20 (11) later.

However, Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes bowled superbly in the last 2 overs as England won by 10 runs to become the third team to qualify for the semi-finals while Sri Lanka and South Africa were eliminated from Group 1.

Jos Buttler got the man of the match deservingly for his match winning knock. Twitter lauded both great innings of the day, Buttler on a winning note while Mathews on a losing note. Here are some of the Twitter reactions that took place during the course of the game:

https://twitter.com/holdingwilley/status/713782411990081536

Last time when #SL failed to make into semis: #IND won #WT20. Last time when #ENG made into semis: #ENG won #WT20.

— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) March 26, 2016

Congratulations to England !! It was a great game of cricket #WT20 England do look strong and well balanced

— Russel Arnold (@RusselArnold69) March 26, 2016

Sri Lanka were 15/4 at one stage, chasing 172 but still came so close. Fought hard but that was not enough. #WT20 #SL

— Nikhil Mane ??? (@nikhiltait) March 26, 2016

England seamers were shit two games ago. A lot can change in a few days

— Cricket Fan Bob (@CricketFanBob) March 26, 2016

#ENG survive to win a thriller against #SL in Delhi! They reach the #WT20 semi-finals!#ENGvSL pic.twitter.com/vrgOVo5vr5

— ICC (@ICC) March 26, 2016

Angelo Matthews reminding of the old adage : Beware of the hobbling batsman. Extremely dangerous #ENGvSL

— Ripper (@Ace_Of_Pace) March 26, 2016

Could it be @OfficialSLC ??? Lots of noise here! What a game. Massive comeback! Still I think it's too many runs ! @StarSportsIndia

— Brett Lee (@BrettLee_58) March 26, 2016

Rare in T20 to see a bowler hitting the deck & moving the ball away to get an edge. Jordan did it vs Afg, & again today. Remarkable. #WT20

— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) March 26, 2016

Mathews coming around after a long, long time at the Kotla. Got dropped for DD's last few matches#ENGvSL

— Gaurav Sethi (@BoredCricket) March 26, 2016

Matthews gonna get SL close & then get caught on boundary. Sri Lanka lose by 7 run

Matthews "I dedicate this knock to Afridi" #ENGvSL

— Big Nas (@NasirJamshed_) March 26, 2016

Hooooly shit, they're not going to pull this off, are they? #WT20

— Geoff Lemon Sport (@GeoffLemonSport) March 26, 2016

Those were the days…. #wt20 #eng #sl pic.twitter.com/JgLfWWtsoN

— Innocent Bystander (@InnoBystander) March 26, 2016

in the meantime, all pretense of neutrality in the comm box is gone with this Matthews assault 🙂

— if Shrikant,who can? (@HomerOpines) March 26, 2016

https://twitter.com/scriblng/status/713773136357904384

A 40-ball 50 for Angelo Mathews who has kept #SL in the game. #SL 111/5 in 15 overs. Need 61 in 30 balls. #WT20

— CricWizz (@CricWizz) March 26, 2016

Big wicket for Eng but this could go deep. Perera/Matthews so dangerous #ENGvSL

— Isa Guha (@isaguha) March 26, 2016

Perera is one of those players, like Afridi, whose mishits can clear 80 metres…. he gets a lot of mishits though.

— cricketingview (@cricketingview) March 26, 2016

On Mathews are Sri Lankan, South African and English eyes………

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) March 26, 2016

Mathews and Kapugedera are changing gears, can they lead #SL to a stunning recovery? They still have batting to come #ENGvSL #WT20

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) March 26, 2016

Srilanka need a steady partnership b/w Sangakkara & Jayawardena.

— Trendulkar (@Trendulkar) March 26, 2016

It wasn't a 15 over game, right? You wouldn't know if you saw the bowling card at the 15 over mark. This should end #SL & #SA #WT20 campaign

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) March 26, 2016

Buttler smashes 66 from just 37 balls to lead #ENG to 4-171 against #SL: https://t.co/zFG633VMbM #WT20 #ENGvSL pic.twitter.com/kM4AKKRHQb

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) March 26, 2016

Sensational innings by @josbuttler. One that has probably sealed a berth for #ENG in the semis against #NZ at Delhi.

— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) March 26, 2016

Well played England, good competitive total. #T20WorldCup

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 26, 2016

#ENG score 72 from final 5, finishing on 171/4.
LIVE: https://t.co/i4LT4JngFI #ENGvSL #WT20 pic.twitter.com/rY4a4mrJAA

— ICC (@ICC) March 26, 2016

The attendance is now officially 10,028… 1,110 more people have been lured to the ground by Buttler's japes #WT20

— Andrew Miller (@miller_cricket) March 26, 2016

I fear Sri Lanka might have bowled out their best bowlers early. These last overs, therefore, crucial.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) March 26, 2016

How did the match pan out? – Eng v SL World T20 Review: England sneaks into semifinal