Arjuna Ranatunga gave them first use of a lovely, dry batting pitch and, without the conviction to pick two spinners, thereby giving their bowling some variety, or the skill to deal with a one-man bowling attack, they drifted to ignominious defeat.
The Lord Mayor's Show against South Africa was always going to take some beating but so were Sri Lanka, who are a dangerously tough, never mind expressive batting team and who looked as if they wanted to win rather more than England, who gave the impression they were playing as an afterthought.
The Sri Lankans were underrated as a Test team, no doubt about it, but they will not be so again. If they can discover another fast bowler to go with the two who played here, and the nearly fit Chaminda Vaas, they will soon be up there with the best in Test cricket in the way that they are in the one-day game.
What a performance that is. Sri Lanka played their first Test just 16 years ago but have used the time since wisely, planning carefully and ambitiously for the sort of successes that are the envy of other nations who have grander resources.
Winning the World Cup was just one part of a business plan put together in the mid-Nineties. Coaching and fitness programmes were addressed seriously for the first time as key players were contracted to the board and the essential success in the limited-overs game - essential in attracting attention from the ICC, potential hosts abroad and sponsors - came sooner than even they had hoped.
Australia gave the Sri Lankans the enormous encouragement of a three-match series over Christmas and New Year prior to the World Cup win and it is now only England who continue to palm them off with a single Test here and there as if they are not worthy.
Well they are, and it is now the England team who have egg on their faces because of the ECB's indifference, which came to haunt them so powerfully yesterday. Put simply, if you never bat against a bowler like Muttiah Muralitharan, you will never improve against him. For goodness' sake, even Shane Warne hasn't managed 16 wickets in just one outing!
The final and trickiest part of the grand Sri Lankan plan was to have become an important force in Tests by 2000. For that they needed fast bowlers, plenty of Tests to teach patience and resilience to the players and plenty of matches abroad to learn about the different pitches and conditions of the world. The plan is coming together, notwithstanding the extraordinary politics of Sri Lankan cricket, which still jeopardise unity of purpose.
In a way Sri Lanka are the modern Barbados of the cricket world, an island where the game thrives and where the children play on every corner. Young talent emerges almost daily, emulating heroes and dreaming of World Cups, Emirates Trophies and Test triumphs thousands of miles away. Arjuna used to dream of yesterday, now the kids of Colombo are dreaming of him, and of Murali, Aravinda and Sanath. Sri Lanka is smitten by cricket - and it shows.