England are facing Sri Lanka at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru today, with both teams painfully aware that a defeat will almost certainly spell doom. The reigning champions had entered the Cricket World Cup as one of the favorites but it's looking like three defeats from four is about to become four from five. They set a dismal target of 157 in the first session, the joint-third lowest batting total of the tournament, and the Lions are licking their lips.
As the first unofficial knockout game of the tournament, it's a must-watch. The game is airing on Sky Sports in the UK, and Willow Sports in the US. Don't worry if you're on holiday while it's on — because you can watch ENG vs SL live streams on 9Now from anywhere with a VPN.
► Time: 9.30 am UK / 4.30 am ET / 1.30 am PT / 7.30 pm AEDT (Oct 26)
US: Willow Sports (via Sling TV)
UK: Sky Sports
AU: Kayo Sports | Foxtel
How to use a VPN to watch any stream
While the losing team won't officially be eliminated, four defeats just looks like too deep a deficit to recover from, and both of these sides had already conceded that they'd need to win all of their remaining games in order to stand a chance of making the knockouts.
England's jaw-dropping 229-run pasting by South Africa last weekend was the second-most lopsided game of the tournament, despite the best efforts of ninth-wicket pair Gus Atkinson and Mark Wood, who contributed 70 runs. That the visibly unwell Adil Rashid was England's top bowler was inexcusable, and Jos Buttler has taken a pummelling for the disastrous decision to field in the searing afternoon heat.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, have tended to at least put up a worthy fight. Two of their defeats stand as the two highest-scoring matches of the tournament, in which the Lions put totals of 326 and 344 on the board. They also pulled off one of the highest successful run chases of the World Cup, against the Netherlands, powered by another heroic Sadeera Samarawickrama effort.
England team: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c, wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
Sri Lanka team: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera. Kusal Mendis (c, wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Mathews, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Dilshan Madushanka
Here’s how to get an England vs Sri Lanka live stream and watch the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 online from anywhere in the world.
How to watch ENG vs SL live stream in the US
If you're a cricket fan in the US, you probably know what we're about to say here: to watch the England vs Sri Lanka game and the rest of the Cricket World Cup, you'll need to use Willow TV.
Willow TV, and Willow Xtra, are two cable channels that are often considered the home of cricket in the US. If you don't have a cable plan that includes the channels, though, there's still a way to watch.
That's because the live TV streaming service Sling TV, which lets you stream cable channels over the internet. Best of all, there's no need to subscribe to a full Sling package to watch the cricket. In the Desi TV offers page, you'll find the Willow TV-only deal for $10 per month only. No long contract. Cancel at any time.
How to watch ENG vs SL live stream in the UK
The UK broadcaster for the Cricket World Cup is Sky, so to watch an England vs Sri Lanka live stream you'll need to have a Sky TV subscription. The game starts at 9.30 am UK and will be shown on both Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket.
Sky Sports costs £56 per month — that's £29 for the base Sky Entertainment & Netflix plan and another £27 for the Sky Sports add-on. This is on a 31-day rolling contract too, and you can save £5 in total per month if you opt for an 18-month contract instead.
The NOW streaming service is a more flexible way to get Sky Sports, and will set you back either £11.99 for a day membership or £33.99 for a monthly membership.
How to watch ENG vs SL live stream in Australia
You can watch ENG vs SL in Australia on Fox Cricket 501, with play starting at 7.30 pm AEDT on Thursday evening.
If you don't have Fox and want and don't wish to subscribe, sports streaming specialist Kayo Sports will also show this and every other game of the Cricket World Cup, with monthly rolling plans starting from $25.
Free-to-air Channel 9 and its 9Now service are also showing a selection of games, but this isn't one of them.
How to watch ENG vs SL from anywhere with a VPN
You can watch England vs Sri Lanka on any of the streaming services above by using a VPN – no matter where you are in the world!
Normally a streaming service will know where you are trying to tune in from and block you if you're not in the right country but a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an app that hides your location. That means you can access your usual sports and entertainment services even while you're traveling abroad.
Our favorite VPN is ExpressVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our sister site, TechRadar.
How to use a VPN to watch any stream
- Download the app at ExpressVPN
- Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, US, etc)
- Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!
What time does the match begin?
England vs Sri Lanka begins at 1.30 am PT / 4.30 am ET / 9.30 am UK / 7.30 pm AEDT on Thursday October, 26, 2023.
