When everything had been lost, Sri Lanka came up with their best performance of the English tour to register a 23-run victory over the hosts in the triangular one-day series here yesterday. Sri Lanka's first victory in the tournament came a day too late as they have already been knocked out of the series following their defeat to India on Saturday. 

Coming into the match with four straight defeats, Sri Lanka suffered another batting collapse, being bowled out for 229 in 49.4 overs after they had elected to bat. A fine 89-run third wicket partnership between top-scorer and man of the match Kumara Sangakkara (70) and Mahela Jayawardene (34) was wasted by the other batsmen, as Sri Lanka were bowled out inside their quota of overs for the second successive time in this series. 

However, the total proved to be more than enough in the end as England were restricted to 206 in 47.4 overs, thanks to some good bowling by Sri Lankan spinners. The tide was turned by the slower bowlers after England had got off to a good start. Following England part-timer Michael Vaughan's career-best effort of four for 22, Sri Lankan spinners, led by captain Sanath Jayasuriya himself, proved themselves a shade better than their counterparts and carved out their team's first victory on this tour of England. Sri Lanka had earlier lost the three-match Test series 0-2.

England, who boasted of a deep batting order, proved unequal to the run-chase which, at a little over 4.5 an over, seemed quite comfortable at the start. As many as five English batsmen reached between 25 and 30 but failed to carry their innings forward and the hosts paid dearly for their mistakes. Openers Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight put on 37 for the first wicket before Nuwan Zoysa provided the breakthrough for Sri Lanka. Trescothick misjudged the line of the ball and was clean bowled for 27. 

A similar fate awaited Knight, who scored 29, after he had shared a 39-run second wicket stand with skipper Nasser Hussain. Hussain himself was guilty of misjudging a quick single and was run out for 28. With Michael Vaughan (14) and Alec Stewart (8) also falling cheaply, Sri Lanka started believing in their chances. They started attacking with their spinners who the Englishmen found difficult to negotiate. So much so, that the third fast bowler in the side Promodya Wickramasinghe was allowed only one over which cost him 10 runs.

Sri Lanka fell back on the trio of Jayasuriya, Upul Chandana and Thilan Samaraweera and they came up with regular successes to keep their team in the hunt. Ronnie Irani (28) and Paul Collingwood (29) resisted the Sri Lankan spinners for some time but England failed to build up good partnerships. With the asking rate increasing steadily, the pressure also began to show on the Englishmen and they caved in.

Earlier, Sri Lankan batsmen also frittered away the advantage of a sound platform built by Sangakkara and Jayawardene and seemed to have stopped nearly 30 runs short. Sri Lanka's preference for Sangakkara over Romesh Kaluwitharana paid rich dividends as the wicketkeeper-batsman played a beautiful knock to pull his side out of a difficult situation. In the absence of Kaluwitharana, Marvan Atapattu opened the innings with Jayasuriya and the two put on 59 for the first wicket. It was a good start by the islanders, though not a flyer that they are so used to. 

But the dismissal of both these batsmen in quick succession put Sri Lanka in a tight situation. It was then that Jayawardene and Sangakkara came together and consolidated the innings without taking too many risks. They scored at a decent rate and took their team to 162 for two, a position from where the batsmen could launch an onslaught in the last ten overs. 

But once Jayawardene was run out while going for a second run, Sri Lanka suffered a collapse. Sangakkara followed his partner soon after and the rest of the batsmen hardly put up any fight.

Scorecard