Sri Lanka crushed England at the Cricket World Cup to leave the holders defence in jeopardy ©Getty Images

Sri Lanka produced a dominant performance to leave England's International Cricket Council Men's Cricket World Cup title defence hanging by a thread in Bengaluru.

The match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium saw the Lankans power to victory by eight wickets as they wrapped up the win with 24.2 overs to spare.

They chased a modest 157 for just their second triumph of the tournament as Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama starred with unbeaten totals of 77 and 65, respectively.

The pair settled Sri Lankan nerves after the early wickets of Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis at the hands of David Willey.

The result marks the first time since 2015 that defending champions England have suffered a third consecutive defeat in the World Cup.

"It's incredibly tough, an incredibly disappointing tournament," said England captain Jos Buttler.

"As captain, you feel that a lot.

"We've been short of our best by a very long way.

"I'm disappointed for myself and the boys that we've not shown a good account of ourselves.

"I can't fault the guys' efforts, we're just a long way short of our best.

"As captain, you want to lead from the front and play well.

"I've been a long way short of my best and that's filtered through the rest."

Pathum Nissanka top scored for Sri Lanka with 77 runs as the country recorded its second win of this year's Cricket World Cup ©Getty Images
Pathum Nissanka top scored for Sri Lanka with 77 runs as the country recorded its second win of this year's Cricket World Cup ©Getty Images

The win lifted Sri Lanka to fifth in the table while England are languishing down in ninth, ahead of only The Netherlands.

Coming off the back of a record 229-run defeat to South Africa, England could not breathe any life into their campaign as they were bowled out for 156.

They reached 45-0 before Dawid Malan was dismissed, with Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, and Buttler following relatively soon after.

Ben Stokes offered some resistance with 43 runs from 73 balls, but with wickets falling around him England's innings was up in 33.2 overs. 

"Net run-rate going up is good for our team," said Sri Lanka captain Mendis.

"We've done really well, the bowling team did a really good job.

"We have another four games left, I think if we win three games we can make the semi-finals.

"We can do that."

England now need to win all of their remaining four games and hope other results go their way.

Competition is set to continue tomorrow with Pakistan taking on South Africa at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.