Sri Lanka held their nerve after a brilliant century by Jos Buttler to beat England by seven runs in the fourth one-day international at Lord's on Saturday and level the series at 2-2.
Sri Lanka are never anybody's pre-tournament favourites but when the dust settles there they are.
Kumar Sangakkara (130 not out) played the captain's role to perfection to bolster Sri Lanka's position in the second Test against India at the SSC ground in Colombo on Monday. The home team was 312 for two at close of play.
Lost in transition, defending champions Sri Lanka will look to come out of the rut and start well against a spirited Afghanistan in their World Twenty20 Super 10 opener at Eden Gardens on Thursday. The defending champions, who were also runners-up in 2009 and 2012, have managed to win only four of their 14 matches since they beat India to win the 2014 edition in Mirpur. They are in the middle of a transition phase after Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene's exit. The build-up to the tournament was also forgettable with series defeats in New Zealand and India followed by an early ouster in Asia Cup. To add to the misery, their 2014 WT20 winning skipper Lasith Malinga has stepped down as leader of the team, following concern over his slow recovery from a knee injury. Now Test and ODI skipper Angelo Mathews' task is cutout. Having joined the squad on Tuesday, Malinga is a doubtful starter for the match. His presence in the team would impact the team a lot.
Sri Lanka have called up pace bowler Dilhara Fernando into an expanded 16-man squad for their five-match one-day series against Pakistan, which starts on Thursday. Fernando, 30, will provide strike bowling cover for Lasith Malinga, who is returning to one-day cricket after a year's absence and may not play in all the matches due to a congested schedule.
Sri Lanka's bowlers bundled out England for 185 before the hosts chased down the target with eight wickets to spare in the rain-hit second One-day international on Saturday to take a 2-0 lead in the seven-match series.
An unbeaten century by Kumar Sangakkara and a fighting 80 from Marvan Atapattu saw Sri Lanka reach 247 for 3 at stumps on day 4, needing to bat through the last day of the second Test to salvage a draw or score another 260 for a famous victory.
Sri Lanka were finally able to pose a challenge to India in the first Test after being hammered in the home series and that, according to chief coach Nic Pothas, was a huge positive.
Even as Sri Lanka sweats over pacer Lasith Malinga's injury, skipper Angelo Mathews hopes to inspire his young team to defend its WT20 title.
Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene, on Sunday, said he felt disillusioned with the state of cricket in the country and thus declined an offer to play a role in the team's World Cup campaign.
Wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara and Tatenda Taibu scored an impressive knock in the rain shortened first ODI.\n\n
Sri Lanka, needing 363 to win, were struggling at 47-4 in their second innings at stumps on the penultimate day of the second Test when 17 wickets fell.
Penpix of the Sri Lanka squad for the 2015 cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
It's a Super Saturday! Australia take on Sri Lanka in a crucial World Cup encounter at the R Premadasa stadium in Colombo.
Sri Lanka, who won the tournament in 1996 before making consecutive finals in 2007 and 2011, enter the 2019 edition on a difficult recent run of form.
Sri Lanka produced an exceptional bowling and fielding display to beat Pakistan by 37 runs on Friday in the first of two Twenty20 internationals.
Sri Lanka has been fined for maintaining a slow over-rate during its 38-run defeat against New Zealand in the ICC Champions Trophy match at the Wanderers.
Angelo Mathews was replaced Lasith Malinga as captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team for the International Cricket Council World Twenty20.
All-rounder JP Duminy claimed a hat-trick as South Africa stormed into the World Cup semi-finals with a comprehensive nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday.
Half-centuries from Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thilan Samaraweera and Kumar Sangakkara helped Sri Lanka reach 296 for four in their second innings at the close of the third day of the second Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong on Monday. The visitors, 1-0 up in the two-Test series, extended their overall lead to 472 without losing a wicket in the final session.
While India have been busy with their preparations in Sri Lanka, focus among the locals is slowly shifting to their heroic batsman Kumar Sangakkara.
Sri Lanka have included pace spearhead Lasith Malinga in their 15-man squad for the Cricket World Cup despite concerns over his fitness after ankle surgery, the country's cricket board said on Wednesday.
Six different teams have lifted the trophy over the years, with the West Indies, England and reigning champions India the only nations to have won it twice.
Factbox on World Cup match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Hagley Oval.
VVS Laxman believes that the current national cricket team is full of match-winners and if they play to their potential, they can beat Sri Lanka in their own backyard.
Sri Lanka were 66 for 1 at stumps, in reply to India's 642 in the fist innings, at the end of Day 2 in the second Test in Kanpur on Wednesday. Rahul Dravid went on to score a fluent 144 while Rangana Herath claimed five wickets as India were dismissed in 154 overs.
A Zimbabwean batting collapse ensured Sri Lanka an easy win in Harare on Thursday in the first of the five one-day internationals.
For Sri Lanka, the World Cup final, says captain Kumar Sangakkara, is going to be all about controlled aggression, not being too emotional about anything.
Former sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has alleged that his country 'sold' the game to India, a claim that was ridiculed by former captains Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene who demanded evidence from him.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews and debutant Dilruwan Perera narrowly missed centuries but guided Sri Lanka to a solid first innings total on the second day of the third and final Test against Pakistan in Sharjah on Friday.
Mahela Jayawardene scored four streaky runs in his last Test, as Pakistan's bowlers dismantled Sri Lanka's first innings on the opening day of the second and final match, in Colombo, on Thursday.
Three months after subjecting Sri Lanka to a 9-0 whitewash across all formats, Virat Kohli's men prevailed 1-0 in the latest round of a duel between the neighbours to seal their record-equalling ninth consecutive test series win.
Kumar Sangakkara, playing his final one-day international on home soil, set a record for the most runs in a calendar year as Sri Lanka thumped England by 87 runs in the last match of the series in Colombo on Tuesday.
Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson fell agonisingly short of centuries but New Zealand's imposing total ensured they beat Sri Lanka by 120 runs in the sixth One-day international on Sunday to take an unassailable 4-1 lead in their seven-match series.
Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara gave a batting masterclass in the shortest version of the game to lead Sri Lanka to an emphatic nine-wicket win over England in a one-off Twenty20 international in Bristol on Saturday.
Sri Lanka's Kaushal Silva and Kumar Sangakkara offered stubborn resistance on the second day of the opening Test after Joe Root put England in control by hitting his maiden Test double ton on Friday.
Opener Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan slammed centuries to help India humiliate Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 169 runs in the first One-Day International in Cuttack, on Sunday.
India's batting coach Sanjay Bangar defend Rohit Sharma's repeated failures in Test cricket, saying the Mumbai batsman deserves the same patience Sri Lanka had with their greats, Marvan Atapattu and Kumar Sangakkara.
South Africa defeated Sri Lanka by 22 runs in the second Twenty20 international in wind-swept Hambantota on Sunday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Tillakeratne Dilshan and Ajantha Mendis led Sri Lanka to a 55-run win over hosts South Africa as the opening match of the Champions Trophy was decided by the Duckworth-Lewis scoring method on Tuesday.
