England face a reunion with their former head coach Chris Silverwood after his Sri Lanka side qualified for the next round of the T20 World Cup as group winners.
Silverwood was sacked in the February aftermath of a dreadful Ashes series and a sequence of one win in 17 Test matches, with the ECB subsequently splitting his duties between Brendon McCullum and Matthew Mott.
He was soon back in international cricket with Sri Lanka, with whom he registered an elusive success over Australia in the summer and has now set up a meeting with his old team on November 5 in Sydney.
Sri Lanka finished top of Group A after defeating the Netherlands by 16 runs in Geelong on Thursday, guaranteeing their place in Group 1 of the Super 12 stage alongside England, Australia, New Zealand, Afghanistan and one further qualifier.
Kusal Mendis scored a crucial 79 from 44 balls and mystery spinner Wanindu Hasaranga collected three for 28, putting Sri Lanka’s next opponents on notice.
The Netherlands clung on to take second place and a spot in Group 2 via net run-rate, after Namibia fell agonisingly short of beating the United Arab Emirates.
David Wiese, the former South Africa all-rounder and a stalwart of the franchise circuit, hit 55 off 36 balls but was spectacularly caught on the boundary by Alishan Sharafu in a nerve-shredding final over as Namibia lost by seven runs.
