England thus served notice that they will be challenging strongly to at least take away this trophy after their bashing in the ashes series where they lost 3-1 to Australia.
When Sri Lanka made 207 for 8, England did not have a formidable target to chase. Out after a strong start by skipper Stewart and Knight who put on 59 for the first wicket, the other batsmen made heavy weather and it was left to left hander Neil Fairbrother who stroked an unbeaten 67 off 105 deliveries with a six and a four to steer them home. Stewart made 24 and Knight 40.
All credit to the Sri Lankan bowlers who made the Englishmen to fight all the way for victory. Muralitharan, Chandana and Jayasuriya bowled economically.
Muralitharan once again ran into some turbulence when the 'Barmy Army' and some of the spectators started to 'call' him. But he replied with a tight spell of 3 for 34.
'Captain Cool' was not disappointed with the result. He admitted that the loss of Aravinda de Silva was a big blow but promised to come back and he concerned at the finish.
The Lankans now move on to Sydney and clash with Australia on Wednesday.
The Sri Lankans when they batted were off to a shock start when left hander Sanath Jayasuriya was out to the second ball he faced in the first over of Darren Gough with the score only on 2 after pushing a single in the first ball. England were delighted to see the back of Jayasuriya who thrashed them for a double hundred in the Test match at the Fostor's Oval. Jayasuriya showed his weakness again to a delivery pitched outside off stump and moving away to give Greame Hick a slip catch.
Marvan Atapattu who had not been in good form on this tour, joined the man in form Romesh Kaluwitharne and together they produced the best batting of the innings.
They were not overawed by the early loss of Jayasuriya. They settled down to some effective batting and dished out a batting treat that was lapped up by the crowd especially the slossies (that's how the Lankans domiciled here are known).
Kaluwitharane was audacious and exciting, while Atapattu was exotic with strokes from the copybook. His bat was always straight and his technique an example.
Going admirably they hoisted the 50-run stand in 75 deliveries and their stand of 97 came in 125 deliveries. Kaluwitharane was lured into lifting Croft to square leg where Headley took the catch after making 58 which came in 61 balls with 5 fours. It was his 9th one-day 50.
Atappatu was looking set for a big score, but trying to slice a delivery through the vacant slip position, only managed to drag it on to his wicket. His innings was a good one (51 off 90 balls with 2 fours).
Skipper Ranatunga who tried his hand in the number four slot failed to keep down a delivery and popped a caught and bowled to Adam Hollioake, without scoring. Roshan Mahanama continued with his wretched run and fell for 2. Hashan Tillekerante came into his own with wickets falling all around him to play a responsible and useful unbeaten innings of 51 off 87 deliveries with 2 fours.
Upul Chandana who is turning out into being quite a dandy all-rounder chipped in with an invaluable 24.
Adam Hollioake returned the best figures for England with 3 for 24 in 10.
England won with three balls to spare. Attendance was 12,363.