England Beat Sri Lanka To Take ODI Series 3-2

England Beat Sri Lanka To Take ODI Series 3-2

England celebrate the final wicket of Lasith Malinga and their victory in both the match and the series

©Action Images / Jason Cairnduff Livepic

England 268-9 (Trott 72, Randiv 5-42) beat
Sri Lanka 252 (Mathews 62) by 16 runs
Fifth One-Day International, Old Trafford
Scorecard

England produced a fine all-round performance to beat Sri Lanka by 16 runs in an excellent fifth and final One-Day International at Old Trafford.

Half-centuries from Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan saw England to a score of 268 for nine and Sri Lanka showed all their fighting qualities to recover from 131 for five to push England close before they were bowled out for 252.

Angelo Mathews (62) and Jeevan Mendis (48) put on 102 for the sixth wicket to keep the game alive and the tourists were still in with a chance until Mendis was caught by Kevin Pietersen off Samit Patel and Mathews was caught by Tim Bresnan off Jade Dernbach.

Dernbach returned two for 49 when he ended the match by bowling Lasith Malinga for six to hand England a 3-2 series win.

England themselves looked set for a bigger score thanks to the contributions of Trott, who made 72, Morgan's 57 after openers Alastair Cook (31) and Craig Kieswetter (43) had put on 85 for the first wicket.

They fell within two runs of each other and when Kevin Pietersen was caught behind for five, England were 97 for three.

An excellent partnership of 118 between Trott, who faced 87 balls, and Morgan, whose innings took 60 deliveries, saw both players score just five boundaries between them but they played superbly to frustrate Sri Lanka.

Morgan fell when he was stumped and Trott was a touch unlucky when an innocuous delivery from Suraj Randiv bounced off his pads and dislodged a bail before he had chance to kick it away from his stumps.

Randiv then returned figures of five for 42, also removing Ian Bell (4), Patel (8) and Tim Bresnan (6) as England's middle order collectively threw their wickets away but fortunately for the home side, they had been given the platform to hit out and attempt to score quick runs.

Sri Lankan openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Tillakaratne Dilshan then both fell for four - Dilshan completing a terrible run of form in the ODIs and Karunaratne making little impression on debut.

Both men fell to Bresnan, who delivered an excellent opening spell and he was backed up by James Anderson, who removed Mahela Jayawardene for nine when he was caught by Alastair Cook.

Kumar Sangakkara and Dinesh Chandimal then revived Sri Lanka's innings, Sangakkara making a classy 48 in 75 balls and Chandimal hitting 54 in 64 balls which included five fours and two well-struck sixes.

Chandimal fell to Graeme Swann and when Sangakkara was bowled by the irrepressible Bresnan, the game looked all up for Sri Lanka.

Mathews and Mendis then gave England a serious scare but they had been left with a little too much to do and once their partnership was broken, England broke through to swiftly finish off the rest of the order.

© Cricket World 2011