Winning the toss, England decided to bat first after their debacle against South Africa while chasing in Mumbai a few days back. They made three changes to their XI, bringing back Chris Woakes, Liam Livingstone, and Moeen Ali in place of Reece Topley, Gus Atkinson, and Harry Brook.

Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan came out to open the innings for England as Dilshan Madushanka took the new ball for Sri Lanka. Bairstow could have been dismissed very first ball if not for some luck.

Madushanka bowled an inswinging half volley on the leg stump to Bairstow, who was late on the ball as his bat and pad jammed together. The ball hit the middle of his bat and went straight down the ground as the England openers scampered back for three. However, given how close the bat, pad, and the ball were, the Sri Lankans came together for a while and contemplated a review, but backed out in the end, perhaps because it was the first ball of the innings and they weren’t a 100 percent sure about it.

The replays were shown a minute later. The ball-tracker revealed that not only did the ball hit the pad first, but it had pitched in line, hit in line, and would have gone on to hit the leg stump.

Had Sri Lanka reviewed, the on-field decision would have been reversed and Bairstow would have been given out first ball.

Quite a moment in England’s World Cup: Jonny Bairstow would have been lbw first ball of the innings had Sri Lanka reviewed, but they opted not to review after a long consultation.

— Tim Wigmore (@timwig) October 26, 2023

Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, it was not to be to be: Malan and Bairstow stitched a 45-run opening partnership in 6.3 overs before the former was caught behind off the bowling of the veteran Angelo Mathews.

At the time of writing, England were 71-3 in 14 overs.