Holders Australia Bow Out As England Into T20 World Cup Semi-Finals

England needed to win to make the last four from Group 1 alongside already-qualified New Zealand, and they achieved the feat in a nail-biting finish with two balls to spare

Ben Stokes hit a gutsy unbeaten 42 as England made the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals on Saturday with a tense four wicket win over Sri Lanka, shattering the hopes of defending champions Australia whose title defence is now over. England needed to win to make the last four from Group 1 alongside already-qualified New Zealand, and they achieved the feat in a nail-biting finish with two balls to spare. If they had lost, Australia would have gone through. Sri Lanka looked on track for a big total when they reached 80-2 after 10 overs, but the aggressive Pathum Nissanka was out for 67 and they crumbled to 141-8 with Mark Wood taking 3-26.

England raced to 75 without loss in reply and looked on track for an easy win. But they collapsed to 111-5 under pressure from the Sri Lankan spin attack and it went to the wire.

The victory was not enough to dethrone New Zealand at the top of the table with England settling for second. The fate of Group 1 will be determined on Sunday.

Sri Lanka's defeat ended Australia's stuttering tournament, with their title defence never recovering after losing heavily to New Zealand on the opening day then having to share the points with England due to rain.

Sri Lanka, who have not beaten England in a T20 since 2014, won the toss and asked England to field, conscious that all five previous games at the ground during the World Cup had been won by the team batting first.