England’s defence of the Cricket World Cup was placed in dire straits with the holders reduced to 85-5 through 17 overs against Sri Lanka.
With both sides sitting with a 1-3 record coming into Thursday’s match, a loss would come close to eliminating either nation from semi-final contention, with only the top four teams to qualify.
But England lost five wickets for just 30 runs putting them on the brink of tournament oblivion.
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Former captain Angelo Mathews marked his return to the Sri Lanka team with a wicket with just his third delivery.
The veteran all-rounder, who was called up to replace the injured Matheesha Pathirana after initially being left out of the 15-man squad, is appearing in his fourth World Cup.
Mathews had Dawid Malan caught behind after the opener had made a brisk 28 with defending champions England on 45-1 at the time.
Mathews then ran out Joe Root (3) before the English also lost the wickets of Jonny Bairstow (30) and captain Jos Buttler (8) in quick succession.
It left Ben Stokes and Liam Livingstone at the crease at 77-4 attempting to save their innings, and indeed their tournament.
But Livingstone’s review of an LBW called out on the field was unsuccessful with the wicket impact declared umpire’s call, just clipping the bails over the top, leaving them 85-5.
The 36-year-old Mathews is playing just his fifth one-day international in the last three years but Thursday represented his 222nd game overall in the format.
He has also played 106 Tests and 78 T20s.