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In the best and most exciting game of the Indoor world cup tournament, Sri Lanka recorded their first ever win over one of the established nations (Sri Lanka had earlier beaten newcomers India) when they came up against England on Thursday.

England batted first and although Sri Lanka's bowling was very good, their fielding was a bit flatter than previous games. England posted their biggest score of the Cup so far, with every pair contributing. They lost only 5 wickets for the match, with their last pair of Walker and McDonogh losing none.

Sri Lanka's chase began shakily with a wicket off the very first ball. With two more wickets in the second over, Sri Lanka found themselves on 8 after 10 balls. Another wicket in the 3rd over and they were 9 after 3, Salvation for the first pair came through some great batting in their last over. They took 14 off the first seven balls, then finished their partnership with Dilshan cracking a 7 on the last ball. 21 off the over, a partnership of 30.

The second pair put on an excellent partnership of 46 runs (no wickets), and the game was well on, even though Sri Lanka still had a lot of work to do. As was the case in their previous games, England allowed more than 6 overs to pass without a wicket.

The third pair only lost one wicket, posting a partnership of 33 runs.

The last pair for Sri Lanka therefore needed 19 runs to win. But England were not spent yet-a wicket in the 13th over meant they gave up only 2 runs. The 14th cost them 9, and the 15th cost them 7. No wickets fell in those two overs, but Sri Lanka were beginning to find hitting the net difficult. Even so, at the end of the 15th over the scores were level. Sri Lanka lost a wicket on the 2nd ball of the last over, and the score dropped back to 123.

The next four balls consisted of one "dot" ball and 3 singles. With 2 balls to go, Sri Lanka were still one run behind.

The issue was put beyond doubt when Asela Pathirana, the Sri Lankan captain, cracked a 5. The last ball was successfully kept out, and Sri Lanka had won an outstanding game, much to the vocal delight of the Sri Lankan touring party and the Sri Lankan Women's team who were also watching.An interesting sideline to this game is that Sri Lanka won only one of the skins while still winning the game. Although it's not unheard of, it is unusual.

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