Johannesburg, September 25th 2009:  England not so favorites for the Champions trophy renewed their nations interest by defeating Sri Lanka today.  The fourth match of the tournament was played at the Johannesburg stadium saw England in control right from the first when Onions and Anderson had Sri Lanka reeling by getting the top four batsman out. Kandamby and Mathews revived the innings by hitting half centuries and getting Sri Lanka to a not so defendable total of 212.

But England had Ajantha Mendis and Murali to reckon with but the two failed to get any turn on the track.  Collingwood set the tone of the England innings by scoring 46 off of 51 balls with Shah on the other end supporting him with a valuable contribution of 44.  But it was Morgan who took charge and remained unbeaten at 62 driving his team to victory.  Prior also played a sensible innings finishing up the game with Morgan for an unbeaten 28.

Sangakkara was disappointed by his team’s performance after a solid performance against the Australians.  Sangakkara said "It was a good total. To reach 212 was fantastic. Samaraweera, Kandamby and Mathews played well.   Ajantha bowled well but it was not to be today.  We are probably firing on about 80%.  We have a lot of homework to do before the next game.  We played well!   Need to be flexible!  This wasn't a typical one-day track but we had to build a good score."

The England captain was jubilant about the victory.  He said “We played well.  The key was to not lose too many early wickets.  The way Collingwood played too the game to them.  Shah played well.  Morgan played brilliantly.  This is a fast-scoring ground and we had to keep sensible and not do anything too rash.  It was a sensible and professional chase.  Morgan has played a lot of innings like that over the years at Middlesex but it is nice to see him transfer that into the international format.  We're not jumping up and down but you can take a lot from victories like this.  Our players played without fear and if we continue to do that we can be a good team.”

Paul Collingwood was declared the man of the match and made valuable contributions with the bat and the ball today. Collingwood said “It’s good when you contribute to a team's victory.  The way Anderson took wickets early on was crucial.  It was going to be difficult chasing because the ball was doing a bit, but Morgan did very well to see the boys home. We negated their spinners well."

Indian takes on Pakistan tomorrow in the 6th Match of the tournament in Centurion and Australia play West Indies in Johannesburg.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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