SL haul easy 9-wicket victory

Sri Lanka today hauled an easy nine-wicket victory against England in the 22nd match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 at Westpac Stadium, Wellington.

While answering to England's 309 runs, the Lankan top-orders -- Lahiru Thirimanne and Kumar Sangakkara -- plied their innings to the end by scoring unbeaten 139 and 117 runs respectively.

Sangakkara was given the Player of the Match award for scoring his sensible ton spending 113 balls.

The Asian side lost their sole wicket of Tilakratne Dilshan who was sent back to pavilion by Moeen Ali on his 44 runs.

Earlier, England won the toss elected to bat first.

England's Joe Root smashed a century to help his team reach a big total against the Sri Lanka.

He scored 121 runs from only 108 balls, and struck 14 fours and two sixes in his innings.

Jos Buttler provided the fireworks late in the innings with a cameo of 39 runs from 19 balls (six fours, one six). Earlier, opener Ian Bell added another 49 runs to the scorecard.

The wickets were shared by all the Sri Lankan bowlers, Suranga Lakmal being the most expensive of the lot.

England

MM Ali, IR Bell, GS Ballance, JE Root, EJG Morgan (Capt), JWA Taylor, JC Buttler (wk), CR Woakes, SCJ Broad, ST Finn and JM Anderson

Sri Lanka

HDRL Thirimanne, TM Dilshan, KC Sangakkara (wk), DPMD Jayawardene, AD Mathews (Capt), FDM Karunaratne, LD Chandimal, NLTC Perera, HMRKB Herath, SL Malinga and RAS Lakmal