Sri Lanka pull one back

England vs. Sri Lanka
Game seven
Old Trafford - Scorecard

Sri Lanka finally won a match on their most forgettable tour of England, which saw them lose the Test series and fail to qualify for the triangular finals, defeating England by 23 runs in game seven of the NatWest Tri-Series at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Some exceptional spin bowling from the Lankans plotted the downfall of the Englishmen after wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara knocked off a defiant 70 to help his team score 229.

In reply, England collapsed for 206 runs in what skipper Nasser Hussain described was a clumsy performance.

NatWest Series table

Team P W L NR Pt NRR India 4 3 0 1 14 +0.26 England 5 2 2 1 10 +0.10 Sri Lanka 5 1 4 0 4 -0.25

How the points system works

Sri Lankan innings:

The match was purely of statistical interest as India and England, by defeating the Lankans in their respective matches, had stormed into the finals.

But "you can't view the game as practice", said English skipper Nasser Hussain before the start of the match. "We're playing for England."

The Englishmen decided to test their bench strength by replacing Ashley Giles with Jeremy Snape. Alex Tudor came into the side in place of James Kirtley, who was injured.

Sri Lanka made three changes: Sangakkara came in place of Romesh Kaluwitharana, Avishka Gunawardene made way for Chamara Silva and Charitha Buddhika stood down for Nuwan Zoysa.

Skipper Sanath Jayasuriya elected to bat after winning the toss under an overcast sky. Darren Gough and Tudor pinned the Lankan openers on the back-foot with a searching spell. Jayasuriya drove Tudor through the covers for the first four of the innings in the sixth over.

With a single down to third man, the Lankans reached fifty in the eleventh over. Jayasuriya, however, was lucky as he edged Andrew Flintoff to the second slip but Marcus Trescothick failed to hang on to the catch.

After slamming Tudor to the long-off fence, Jayasuriya, surprised by a delivery that climbed on to him, spooned an easy catch to Hussain for 23. (59-1)

Marvan Atapattu (34), who opened with Jayasuriya, played a decent knock before he was run out when Sangakkara called for a single and he failed to beat a direct throw from Paul Collingwood. (73-2)

Off-spinner Snape and Ronnie Irani pegged the Lankan scoring rate with tight spells as Mahela Jayawardene and Sangakkara relied on singles to keep the score moving.

Sangakkara, who was dropped from the side in favour of Kaluwitharana in the last few games, danced down the wicket and heaved Snape through mid-wicket for a four in a bid to release the throttlehold of the English bowling.

The partnership between Jayawardene and Sangakkara, who reach his 50 off 59 balls, had set the base for an imposing total.

However, a throw from the deep from Tudor combined with some quick glove-work from Alec Stewart saw Jayawardene run out for 42 with the Lankan score reading 162 for 3.

Snape, who got treated for a bleeding hand thanks to a hard catch smacked straight back at him by Sangakkara, caught Russel Arnold (6) off his own bowling. (185-4)

Sangakkara made batting look really easy, as he raced away to the sixties with fluid stroke play.

Hussain inducted Snape and Michael Vaughan and the latter got the much-needed breakthrough by trapping Sangakkara, who was looking to sweep, for 70. (191-5)

Striking for the second time in consecutive overs, Vaughan, bowling his sharp off-cutters, had Thilan Samaraweera stumped of a wide delivery for 3.

Lanka lost its last five wickets for 25 runs.

Trying to sweep Vaughan, Chamara Silva got a top-edge and ballooned a simple catch to Collingwood at short fine leg. In the same over, he bowled Chaminda Vaas round his legs for a duck.

With his scintillating performance, Vaughan, who was picked ahead of Graham Thorpe, gave England the option of picking an extra batsman for the remainder of the series.

Lanka folded for 229 in the final over while just less than an hour ago it seemed that the tourists would get a huge total.

England innings:

Trescothick combined skill with brute power to get England off to a great start.

He shredded Zoysa, belting him for two fours in his first over. But the left-handed opener's impudence got the better of him as Zoysa rearranged his woodwork for a 23-ball 27 in the sixth over.

England went after the Lankan bowlers as though they were chasing a target in excess of 270. Hussain joined Nick Knight, who was struggling at the crease, and decided to keep the scoring pace set by Trescothick going.

Charging down the track to Pramodya Wickramasinghe, the England skipper cracked a straight four and six in one over. That was the only over that the veteran seamer bowled for the rest of the innings.

Knight exited for 29 when he failed to pick the line of a Zoysa delivery and was bowled with the English reply reading 76-2.

Hussain swept for a couple and brought up the England 100 in the 18th over. The drama began in the next over as Vaughan presented leg-spinner Upul Chandana a simple return catch. The capacity Old Trafford crowd went silent as the third England wicket fell with a lot of cricket yet to be played.

The number eight batsman for the last few one-dayers, Stewart, walked out at number 5 to support his skipper. Eight runs later, Hussain responded slowly for a single and was caught short of his crease by Atapattu's throw from midwicket for 28.

Jayasuriya, taking a cue from his counterpart, engaged spin and cramped the English batsmen and very soon chipped a meek catch to Chandana at midwicket, off Samaraweera. (118-5)

Samaraweera's success prompted Jayasuriya to bring himself on in the 30th over. The English had struggled inexplicably in their chase after having chased 234 in 32 overs against the same Lankan attack. At the 30 over mark, their innings comprised 117 dot balls and just 39 singles -- all the ingredients that sour a one-day pursuit.

Jayasuriya -- Lanka's most successful bowlers with over 200 wickets in one-dayers -- struck immediately bowling Flintoff, who looked to run the ball down to third man. After registering the fastest half-century by an Englishman in England in the opening tie of the triangular, Flintoff threw his wicket away after getting to useful 20s.

With six England wickets down and the asking rate soaring to over six an over, the Lankans had reason to believe that they could pull off their maiden victory in the series.

England did not find the fence for almost 20 overs as they failed to counter the turning ball. Employing the sweep to almost every delivery, the Englishmen played right into the hands of the Lankans.

Irani, the pick of the England bowlers in the series, finally found the fence but succumbed next ball top-edging Jayasuriya to Zoysa at deep mid-wicket. (160-7)

Collingwood and Snape -- both able batsman -- kept the chase alive by hitting a few boundaries. England were left to chase 49 from the last seven overs with three wickets in hand.

Dabbing the ball towards the off-side, Collingwood hesitantly set off for a quick single. Jayawardene pounced on the ball and caught him short of his crease. (186-8)

Tudor, who has a 99 against his name in Test cricket, gave Jayasuriya his third wicket as Atapattu took a diving catch at short fine-leg.

Gough became the third English batsman to be run-out as Sri Lanka wrapped up their first win in the tournament.

Jayasuriya, Chandana and Samaraweera, who bowled 29 overs between them, were instrumental in bringing the Englishmen to their knees. They picked five wickets for 90 runs.

Spin proved to be an impressive weapon against the English and India would do to use it in their encounter against the hosts in their last league game at The Oval before the finals at the Lords.