Oct 01, Pallekele: Sri Lanka beat England by 19 runs in the ICC Twenty20 Group 1 match today in Pallekele International Stadium and knocked the current champions out of the tournament.

England won the toss and put the hosts to bat in the crunch match which they needed to win to secure a slot in the semi-final.

Sri Lanka's opening batsmen Dilshan Tillakaratne got LBW by England's Steven Finn and Mahela Jayawardena who handed the captaincy to Kumar Sangakkara for today's match scored 42 before he was caught by Eoin Morgan.

However the middle order batsmen Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera lifted the hosts to post a 169 total for 6.

With outstanding bowling by Lasith Malinga, England lost three quick wickets for 18 and Sri Lanka's youngster Akila Dananjaya also took two wickets. For England Samit Patel scored the highest with 67 runs.

Lasitha Malinga is the Man of the Match for his five wickets for 31.

Sri Lanka topped the Table in Group 1 with 6 points and with England's loss West Indies at the second spot will qualify for the semi-final from Group 1.