England gave their captain Harry Brooks a sweet birthday present by defeating Sri Lanka by 51 runs in the Super Eights of the Twenty20 World Cup on Sunday.

England's easy win was possible after Sri Lanka were bowled out for 95. England were invited to bat first. In the process, the team had posted a weak score of 146 runs for 9 wickets. 

But Jofra Archer and Will Jacks shared 5 wickets in Sri Lanka's first 6 overs of power play. Sri Lanka were reduced to a weak position of 34 runs for 5 wickets. 'It was a really sweet birthday present,' said Brooks, who turned 27. 'It was a great performance for me, because to be able to restrict Sri Lanka to a score of less than 100 runs is a great achievement.'

Captain Brooks added, 'I think the pitch was not a problem at all. In my analysis, the spin bowlers from both teams took full advantage of the pitch. That's why wickets kept falling today.' 

England's win over Sri Lanka in Twenty20 cricket on a pitch that had been wet and sluggish for a week now has taken the total to 12. The win also gave England a strong net run rate. 

England's win is all the more significant given that the previous day's match between New Zealand and Pakistan in Colombo was abandoned due to rain. Jacks, who has been named player of the match in three of the five matches in this World Cup, said, "It was great to bat first and score 146. Having said that, we knew we would need a good bowling performance against Sri Lanka."

Archer took 2 wickets for 20 runs. The biggest wicket was that of Pathum Nissanka, who scored 9 runs. Jacks took 3 wickets for 22 runs. Kusal Mendis and Pawan Ratnayake were the only batsmen he bowled in consecutive balls. Dusan Sanka tried to put up some resistance. He scored 30 runs in 24 balls and was eventually dismissed by Adil Rashid.