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England are back in Wellington, where on February 20 they were bowled out for 123 in 33.2 overs and lost to New Zealand by eight wickets with 226 balls remaining. That defeat equaled their heaviest defeat in terms of balls remaining, and against Sri Lanka at the Westpac Stadium on Sunday they will be looking to be much, much better than their last trip here.

Sri Lanka have bounced back from defeat in the tournament opener in Christchurch on Valentine's Day, winning against Afghanistan and Bangladesh to currently occupy second place in the Pool A points table. While the Afghanistan win took some doing - they won with four wickets and ten balls in hand - there was enough from the Bangladesh game to believe the team was ready for tougher examinations.

These two teams know a lot about each other, having played 12 ODIs in the last 12 months. Sri Lanka won eight of those in the course of series wins home and away, and so England know what their challenges are. During their 5-2 defeat in Sri Lanka, England often competed in spurts and struggled against spin overall, with only Root really showing a masterly grip of how to score off Sri Lanka's slow bowlers. While spin is not expected to play a big factor in Wellington - after Daniel Vettori's 20 wickets in 20 ODIs here, the next most successful spinner is Jeetan Patel with seven - England will need to be wary of the threat in Sri Lanka's ranks.

England have won the toss and they opt to bat on what Eoin Morgan reckons would be a good batting track. 'You must be sick of playing England,' said Michael Atherton to Angelo Mathews, who replied saying he feels his side are peaking at the right team. With Ireland having notched up two wins, this match could be one of the most important of this World Cup. Let's hope the game lives up to its billing. The 'Cake Tin' could well witness one of the best games of this WC. Why is the ground called 'The Cake Tin'?

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England continued to flounder on the field with misfields and dropped catches giving the already-comfortable Sri Lankan side more opportunities to get ahead.

There were no plot twists towards the end of the game as Sangakkara and Thirimanne kept their cool and their wickets to finish the game off in the 48th over. Sri Lanka moved to second spot on the table with the crushing win, while England remain sixth in the table, hoping for a big turnaround in fortunes.

Full match report to follow soon.