Sri Lanka have proved that whatever their shortcomings in the longer format of the game, they remain a highly proficient limited-overs team, as they defeated England by 66 runs under the bright, white lights of Premadasa International Stadium to win the three-match series.

Colombo crowd Photo CricInfo

Galvanised by an undefeated century by Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka scored 226 in the first innings after winning the toss for the fifth time in five games. Then, cheered on by a partisan Sri Lankan crowd, they throttled the England batsmen with a combination of lithe fielding and tight bowling.

Dav Whatmore, the Sri Lanka coach, was delighted with the way that the team had bounced back from their numbing Test series defeat two-weeks ago. "After the worst possible start I was very pleased with 226, principally the product of an incredible century from Mahela Jayawardene. I was then confident that we could protect our total. The guys showed a really deep desire in the field and have shown a lot of character in the last week."

The pitch was the traditional Premadasa slow turner and the outfield was unusually slow, so England's target was always likely to prove tricky after Sri Lanka had grasped the initiative in the final five overs of their innings, as an exhausted Jayawardene and Kumar Dharmasena clumped 46 runs, turning a moderate total into a useful one.

Jayawardene - hard fought 100 Photo CricInfo

If England were to win, they desperately needed a good start against the quicker bowlers. Alas, Marcus Trescothick, who had already been dropped in the second over, charged Nuwan Zoysa and top-edged a simple catch to Romesh Kaluwitharana in the sixth over of the innings.

Andrew Flintoff was promoted to number three in the hope that he could make best use of the fielding restrictions and hard ball. He should have been caught on two, but went on to pummel 15 from the 10th over of the innings. Having shaken out the inertia, however, he promptly lofted a miserly Chaminda Vaas, who conceded just 12 runs from his seven-over opening burst, straight to Muttiah Muralitharan at mid on. The off-spinner failed to grasp the ball on the first attempt, but then swivelled to take a nimble reaction catch.

Alec Stewart did his best to hold the innings together with a half-century, but he was not given sufficient support from the middle order. Graeme Hick was stumped off Sanath Jayasuriya and Graham Thorpe was dismissed for the first time in four innings by a brilliant catch by Jayawardene at short extra cover.

With 109 runs needed from the final 15 overs, Stewart was forced into a lofted sweep that was plucked out of the air by Jayawardene at midwicket. Craig White was run out in the next over for his third duck in three games and England were 119 for six. The Sri Lankan spinners, led by the wild-eyed Muralitharan, who snatched three wickets for 11 runs, then dissected the fragile lower order. England lost their last six wickets for 41 runs.

In the first innings Sri Lanka recovered from the early loss of both openers thanks to an 86-run partnership for the third wicket between Mahela Jayawardene and Marvan Atapattu. Although Atapattu was dismissed for 57, Jayawardene refused to be frustrated by Sri Lanka's slow scoring in the first 40 overs and went on to score a calm 101 from 115 balls, his forth ODI century.

England, who replaced Ashley Giles with Robert Croft this morning, bowled tightly in the afternoon and prevented the home side from scoring at their preferred rate. It was their batting, however, that let them down.

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