World Cup Betting 
/ Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 26 March 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Dilshan looks up to the heavens on his way to a heavenly century
"The two openers did admittedly ride their luck on occasions during the first ten overs, especially Dilshan, but once they got set they cut, pulled, swept and drove with ease and England were never really in it for the whole of the second innings."
Sri Lanka are through to the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup after beating England comfortably this afternoon.
England's participation at the 2011 Cricket World Cup has been a highly entertaining one but it is now over after they were defeated by Sri Lanka in today's quarter-final.
During the Group Stages they were involved in virtually every exciting game the tournament witnessed including a thrilling tie against India, a loss from a winning position against Bangladesh and wins from seemingly doomed positions against both the West Indies and South Africa.
They actually got off to the best possible start today in that Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bat first on a wicket where chasing has been notoriously difficult in the past. But you would never have thought that was the case after watching Sri Lankan openers Upal Tharanga and Tillekaratne Dilshan both reach unbeaten hundreds as they chased down 229 to win by ten wickets. The two openers did admittedly ride their luck on occasions during the first ten overs, especially Dilshan, but once they got set they cut, pulled, swept and drove with ease and England were never really in it for the whole of the second innings.
Earlier Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell, who opened for the first time in the tournament, fell cheaply within the first ten overs and for the umpteenth time over the past three months it was left to Jonathan Trott to repair the damage and play a sensible innings. He found a fine partner in Eoin Morgan, who was dropped three times before reaching 50, but when the Irishman was eventually caught by Angelo Matthews England's hopes of accelerating the run rate in the last few overs went with him. Trott (86) did what he had to do and went in search of late boundaries but he eventually perished to Muttiah Muralitharan and despite a good cameo by Matt Prior, who scored 22 off 19, England posted a total of 229 which always looked at least 20 runs short. England traded at [2.04] when Morgan and Trott were going well.
Sri Lanka will now play New Zealand in the semi-finals and will go into that match as strong favourites. They trade at [2.98] for the tournament with only India shorter at [2.66].
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