Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes stay cool to fire England into World Cup semi-finals

Ben Stokes kept his composure to lead England into the T20 World Cup semi-finals after they flirted with capitulating to Sri Lanka’s band of spinners at Sydney.

England needed to win their final Super 12s contest to pip Australia to second place in their group and reach the last four but, chasing 142, they slipped from 75 for none to 129 for six with 12 balls left.

But Stokes found the gaps and ran hard to finish unbeaten on 42 off 36 balls before Chris Woakes’ cut for four got England over the line with four wickets and two balls to spare in a nail-biting finish.

Stokes, batting at three after Dawid Malan tweaked his groin during Sri Lanka’s innings, was averaging 10.25 with the bat in five matches since his T20 recall but was once again England’s saviour here.