Fairbrother anchors England to second straight win

The match also saw Sri Lankan offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan again in trouble with the umpires -- but not for his controversial throwing action.

England, winners by four wickets with three balls to spare, were jubilant at having beaten Australia and Sri Lanka in two days to go top of the three nation standings.

Sri Lanka scored 207 for seven off 50 overs, but England, with Fairbrother at the centre of the innings reaching 208 for six off 49.3 overs.

England captain Alec Stewart said the hangover from losing the Ashes Test series 3-1 to Australia had already been forgotten.

``Those who have played Test cricket have got over the disappointment of the Ashes,'' Stewart said. ``We can't change what happened so we look forward to the one-dayers.''

The Englishmen made an electric start to the run chase before a brilliant piece of fielding by Muralitharan brought a sudden halt to the free-flowing 59-run stand between Stewart and Nick Knight (40).

A third umpire stumping controversy against Mark Alleyne (18) took the game to the wire in the last three overs when Mark Ealham was trapped leg before moments later.

But man-of-the-match Fairbrother pulled it back to a run a ball in the last two overs when he smashed part-time spinner Hashan Tillakaratne over the straight boundary for six. Spinner Robert Croft got the winning runs.

Muralitharan put in a brilliant bowling display and was the pick of the Sri Lankan team, with wicketkeeper Romesh Kaluwitharana, who top scored with 58 and took two quicksilver stumpings and a brilliant catch.

But Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Chandana tied down the spin-shy batsmen to make a contest of the chase.

Sri Lankan hearts sunk when Australian umpire Steve Davis no balled Muralitharan in his fourth, fifth and sixth overs -- but for overstepping.

The Sri Lankan spin ace has unpleasant memories of playing in Australia after being called for throwing by Australian umpire Darrell Hair in a 1995 Test in Melbourne.

Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga made the incident seem all the more serious when he immediately called for him to be replaced by paceman Chaminda Vaas.

But Vaas bowled just one over before Muralitharan was reintroduced.

It was in his next two overs that Muralitharan took two wickets to make the match more of a contest.

Chandana also stoked up the bad feeling between the two sides when he got into a heated exchange with Fairbrother, which umpire Peter Parker had to break up.

Fairbrother gave Chandana a gentle elbow to indicate ``get out of the way'' as he turned for a second run and the Sri Lankan fired an immediate protest to Ranatunga.

After a minute or so of sorting the problem out, play continued.

Sri Lanka's innings consisted of three valuable half centuries with Tillakaratne hitting an unbeaten 50 while Kaluwitharana scored 58 and Marvan Ataputtu 51 to cover up expensive blunders by some of Sri Lanka's key batsmen.

Sri Lanka lost opener Sanath Jayasuriya after only four balls to paceman Darren Gough, who conceded 32 from his first three overs against Australia on Sunday.

Kaluwitharana and Ataputtu hit a steadying 97-run partnership in 126 balls before England allrounder Adam Hollioake took the next three wickets, including the prized scalp of Ranatunga.

Atapattu was bowled by Hollioake for 51 and veteran Roshan Mahanama was caught by Nick Knight in the gully for two.