Watch the highlights of England vs Sri Lanka 22nd Match Reliance World Cup 1987 - Reliance World Cup 1987 tournament of the 22nd ODI match played between Sri Lanka and England at Nehru Stadium, Pune in 30th October 1987.
Top-order batsmens Graham Gooch, Tim Robinson's fifties, Bill Athey and Mike Gatting's forties helped to England easy eight-wicket victory over Sri Lanka and ease into the last four to qualify for the semi-finals in the 22nd match of a Reliance World Cup.
Sri Lanka scored 218-7 in 50 overs with top scorer by Roy Dias cracked a 80 off 105-balls including 6-fours & 3-sixes.
Asanka Gurusinha scored 34 off 63-balls including 3-fours, Aravinda de Silva 23 not out, Ranjan Madugalle 22 and Sridharan Jeganathan 20 not out.
England best bowler by Eddie Hemmings picked up 3-wickets, Phil DeFreitas took 2-wickets and one for Gladstone Small.
England chased 219-2 in 41.2 overs with top scorer by Graham Gooch cracked a 61 off 79-balls including 7-fours.
Tim Robinson hit 55 off 75-balls including 7-fours, Mike Gatting cracked a unbeaten 46 off 40-balls included 4-fours and Bill Athey scored a unbeaten 40 off 55-balls without a boundary.
Sri Lanka best bowler by Sridharan Jeganathan took 2-wickets for 45-runs in 10-overs.
This match reported by Peter Deeley (Third Party Reference from The Daily Telegraph)
ENGLAND'S one-sided victory over Sri Lanka, which sends them forward to the semi-finals of the World Cup, had the effect of sending a crowd once renowned for their volatility into a state approaching somnambulence.
An eight-wicket winning margin, achieved with 8.4 overs to spare, and nearly 90 minutes of the allotted time span, tells its own story of crushing superiority.
On England's last tour here, the outfielders were pelted with bottles during a one-day international against India.
Today there was hardly the enthusiasm to raise a paper chase.
Workmanlike task
But none of this must be taken as detracting from England's performance.
As Mike Gatting said afterwards, they did exactly the job required of them, a workman like task of execution on the minnows of Group B of this competition who have now lost all their six games. There was almost more excitement in finding out the correct scores.
Getting them exact, down to the last dot ball, has been a job sometimes beyond the skills of the scorers here.
One is reminded, after a visit to the scorebook of the advice about the kitchens of local restaurants: if you see them, you will never trust them again.
So we will go with the third version they produced, Sri Lanka scored 218 for seven and England passed that total by one run, eight wickets in hand, coasting along as though it was a Sunday stroll on the promenade.
Uphill struggles
Sri Lanka have sadly slipped a long way from their early promise on the international scene. Their captain, Duleep Mendis, in his fourth and, surely, last World Cup, has lost touch. It was not the way he would have liked to go out either, sitting in the dressing. room with stomach trouble while his side were in the field.
If his partner of many past uphill struggles, Roy Dias, had not finally regained his form here, one wonders what we might have done with a free afternoon. Dias scored 80, which included three sixes, before he jumped down the wicket to Hemmings and was stumped.
He should thank Paul Downton for the early slice of luck all struggling batsmen need, the wicketkeeper dropping a straightforward catch when Dias was only one.
That followed on another chance put down by Graham Gooch at slip, dislocating a finger in the process, off the fifth ball of the day when Ravi Ratnayeke edged DeFreitas. Only Dias and the young Gurusinhe, with 34, offered any sort of fight with a third-wicket partnership of 88.
Finishing line
Hemmings was once more the most successful wicket-taker, with three, though the most costly with 57 runs. Pick of the attack was DeFreitas with two for 47 and deserving of more; Foster, on the other hand, was again a mixture of good and bad.
Gooch and Robinson gave England their first century opening partnership with 123 runs in 24 overs and then Gatting and Athey ambled across the finishing line, though the scorers were busy, to the last, moving the winning posts.
Gooch earned his second successive man-of-the-match award but sentiment almost suggested it should go to Dias. Gatting said later: "I don't mind whether it's Australia or India next. We've got to beat one more team to reach the final and that's all I'm really concerned about."
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