England 'A' put into bat were dismissed for 186 off 48.3 overs, but fought back strongly to make Sri Lanka 'A' work hard for victory.
Sri Lanka 'A' began poorly losing Avishka Gunawardene to the very first ball of the innings when he played into a delivery from Ben Hollioake. They lost wickets at regular intervals and the only partnership of substance from the top order was 53 off 17 overs between Arnold and Pradeep Hewage (19).
With skipper Ruwan Kalpage and Upul Chandana going within two overs of each other, Sri Lanka struggled to 140 for 7 in the 40th over.
Arnold needed an ally to make victory possible and Dasanayake proved an ideal foil. With some intelligent hitting and running between the wickets, the eighth wicket pair saw Sri Lanka through to an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the 3-match one-day series.
Arnold, who made 87 in the first one-day at Moratuwa, faced 136 balls for his unbeaten knock of 88 which comprised five fours an innings which would have sealed his place as the third opener to South Africa. Dasanayake, who gave a good performance behind the wickets with three stumpings and a run out, used his experience to score an undefeated 30 off 33 balls with three fours.
England 'A's innings resolved around Owais Shah's innings of 65 off 83 balls. The England under-19 captain played shots all round the wicket to hit one six and seven fours.
After local boy Ruchira Paliyaguru had captured two early wickets to put England on the defensive, spinners Niroshan Bandaratilake and Upul Chandana strangled the middle-order sharing six wickets between them.
England were unable to raise any partnerships higher than 46 for the fifth wicket between Shah and David Sales.
The third and final one-dayer will be played at the same venue today commencing at 9.45 am.