In reply to the not too formidable Sri Lanka score of 186 England achieved victory - 189 for 3 by 7 wickets in 45.2 overs.
The architects of England's triumph were Darren Gough who blasted through the early Sri Lanka batting and Graeme Hick who played another responsible innings. Hick's previous knock was a match-winning century against Australia. His fifty came in 77 balls with 2 fours.
Hick made an unbeaten 66 and Crawley was on 31.
As for the Lankans they have only themselves to blame for this defeat. With their early batsmen gifting their wickets, other than for Ranatunga and Chandana, the bowlers were not given an enough total to put pressure on the England batsmen.
England were given a brisk start by Alec Stewart 20 and Nick Knight 35 who put on 52 for the first wicket. Left armer Nuwan Zoysa rocked the English batting boat by capturing 2 wickets in 2 balls. At that stage England were 53 for 2. Hick and Nasser Hussain who is also in the runs then put on 62 for the third wicket to take England to 115 for 3. Muralitharan had Hussain stumped for 29.
Hick and Crawley put on an unbroken stand of 74 for the fourth wicket to take them to an easy victory.
The Lankans now move on to Hobart, Tasmania where they play Australia and will be still looking for that elusive two points.
It was a bit of a surprise to see Sri Lanka win the toss and bat considering that they had left out a batsman in Roshan Mahanama and tossed in a pacie Nuwan Zoysa. It would have been better had the Lankans bowled first and given their three pacies a go on a wicket that was going to be lively in early overs.
As it proved the early Lankans batsmen were moved down by a hostile spell by Darren Gough who in his first seven overs had the dream figures of 7-3-10-4. It was a magnificent spell and he gave a lesson in clever and penetrative bowling. He had Jayasuriya jabbing a catch to Hussain at point for 1. Bowled Kaluwitharne through the gate for 15. Forced Atapattu to play away from his body and snick to Hick in the slips and then had Tillekeratne with a beautiful yorker. At 21 for 4 it looked as though the Lankans would be sliding and the game would end before the light came on. When Jayawardena went after adding 27 for the fifth wicket the Lankans were further in the dumps at 48 for 5.
Ranatunga and Chandana then began the repair job. Ranatunga was calm and collected as usual and was an inspiration to the young Chandana and together they infused the urgency that was required to upset England's trend of play.
'Captain Cool' Ranatunga played an innings that was worth its weight in gold. Not bothered by the loss of early wickets, he found and able and willing partner in Chandana and together they worked the ball around for singles and hit the fence when the loose ones came around.
Ranatunga cut and drove powerfully and it was nice to see him running the quick singles. Chandana meant business from the start and it was nice to see him believing in himself and playing some audacious strokes. Chandana richly deserved his half century which was also his highest in one-day internationals and it came in 67 balls with 3 fours. With his skipper he added an invaluable 92 for the sixth wicket which took the score from 48 for 5 to 140 for 6. Going for a big hit he skied a catch to long mid on. Ranatunga who rallied his side made a gallant 76 with 5 fours in 105 deliveries. Darren Gough was the hero for England with 4 for 28.