England v Sri Lanka: Cricket World Cup 2019 – live!

Here come Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera. It’s a beautiful morning in Yorkshire, and this is a good chance for Sri Lanka to post a big total. If they get 300 and James Vince drives his first ball to extra cover, who knows what might happen.

Remember when

England’s first World Cup meeting with Sri Lanka was at Taunton in 1983, when one of the Guardian’s cricket writers took the first five-for for England at a World Cup. Not that Ali Martin likes to boast about it.

“Morning Rob and a Happy Solstice to OBOers everywhere,” says John Starbuck. “There’s a steady westerly wind pushing clouds towards Headingley but at ground level it’s fairly gusty in places. If this keeps up we ought to miss the rain but local atmospherics could be awkward for bowlers and fielders.”

England are unchanged. Sri Lanka bring in Jeevan Mendis and Avishka Fernando for Lahiru Thirimanne and Milinda Siriwardana.

England Vince, Bairstow, Root, Morgan (c), Stokes, Buttler (wk), Ali, Woakes, Rashid, Archer, Wood.

Sri Lanka Karunaratne (c), K Perera, Fernando, Mendis, Mathews, Mendis, T Perera, de Silva, Udana, Malinga, Pradeep.

The pitch is literally flatter than a pancake, so they’ll want at least 300. Eoin Morgan says he would have batted first.

“As regards Sri Lanka blaming their meek performances on poor pitches and shoddy hotels goes, it still falls within the acceptable bounds of reason,” says Abhinav Dutta. “If I remember correctly, a previous generation of Sri Lankan cricketers blamed their poor cricket on ill-fitting, body-hugging clothes. Although I haven’t found proof, I do remember this being asked around in a respectable sports quiz. One wonders if they turned up to the ground in straitjackets that morning/afternoon.”

I’ve heard worse.

“Morning Rob,” says Daniela Siekiera. “It seems like a sign that when I read about ‘a complaint about a swimming pool’ in your preamble, I just assumed that was a reference to all the washed-out games instead of, you know, an actual swimming pool. But I guess it works both ways. I hope no such complaints will be made about today’s game.”

Breaking news: today’s match has been switched to New Road, Worcestershire.

Good morning. Tense, nervous headache? Me neither. But trust me, it’s in the post, and I’m not talking about tomorrow’s hangover. For England fans the World Cup is about to get very serious, and today’s match against Sri Lanka at Headingley is the last that can be watched in the reclining position.

Before you start, my dearest trolls, this isn’t to say England are guaranteed to win today. They should, but they might not. All of that is what the point is not. The point is that whether they win, lose or tie, the remaining matches will have a nervous edge to them even before a ball is bowled.

After this, England play Australia (Tuesday), India (a week Sunday) and New Zealand (a week Wednesday), all games which could be dress rehearsals for a semi-final or even – yikes – a final. And then, hopefully,we’ll be into the actual OMG this-is-it I can’t-even knockout stages. It could be the time of our lives; it will almost certainly render us an incoherent mess.

If England lose today, the remaining group matches will take on a different, more desperate context. But it shouldn’t come to that. Sri Lanka are sixth in the table, ahead of West Indies, South Africa and Pakistan, though that owes as much to washouts as their own performances. Thus far, the highlight of their campaign has probably been a complaint about a swimming pool.

The match is scheduled to start at 10.30am local time, and should actually do so: the weather forecast is fine.