Close England 241 for 7 (Trescothick 82, Stewart 38*, Collingwood 38*) beat Sri Lanka 240 for 7 (Jayasuriya 118*, Flintoff 2-18) by 3 wickets
scorecard

After three-and-a-half hours had been lost to rain, few people would have expected any sort of a contest in the fourth match of the NatWest Series, let alone one that went down to the wire. But thanks to some long-awaited pyrotechnics from Sanath Jayasuriya, and an equally violent response from Marcus Trescothick, the day turned into a 64-over epic.

England duly won by three wickets in a match reduced to 32 overs apiece, with Darren Gough hitting the winning runs on his return to the side, to edge England past a hefty total of 240 for 7. However, the hard work had been done by this stage. Trescothick provided the bulk of the platform, smacking 82 from 60 balls, and though Nick Knight and Nasser Hussain both fell for ducks, every other batsman contributed in a get-on-or-get-out pursuit.

Ronnie Irani, promoted to No. 3, batted well for a 28-ball 27; Andrew Flintoff flung the bat for 20 off 13 balls, and though England lost the crucial wicket of Graham Thorpe, run out for 15 via a brave decision from the third umpire, Peter Willey, Paul Collingwood and Alec Stewart, a reassuring presence at No. 8, carried England to the brink of victory with a stand of 66 in nine overs, before Collingwood was bowled by Fernando with four runs required.

It was an impressive win for England, who had earlier been run ragged in the field by Jayasuriya, whose 112 off 87 balls was a return to his explosive best.

Jayasuriya has not enjoyed the best of tours, either as a captain or a batsman, and with Sri Lanka desperately in need of a victory after two successive defeats by England and India, he declared his intentions almost from the first over, smacking Matthew Hoggard out of the attack with 28 runs in two overs. Hoggard had been expected to make way for Gough in this match, but was given a reprieve when England decided against employing a spinner. He must have wished he hadn't been. His first over went for 19, included three wides, and his final figures of 4-0-53-1 reflected a bowler shorn of all confidence.

Gough, back in the side after a will-he-won't-he week of speculation, opened with a rusty if hostile over, and quickly grabbed a comeback wicket – Romesh Kaluwitharana, caught off a top-edged pull by Hussain for 7 (26 for 1). He might have had Jayasuriya caught at second slip as well, but for a no-ball.

Jayasuriya survived a clear-cut run-out chance in the next over, but from there on he was unstoppable. He cavorted to a 42-ball 50, reaching the mark by pinging Gough over point for six, arguably the shot of the day. Collingwood was flailed for 49 runs in five overs, and only Andrew Flintoff escaped with his figures intact, his 2 for 18 off seven overs due reward for an intelligent – and swift – spell of line-and-length bowling.

Flintoff first applied the brake, then turned the screw as Sri Lanka's run-rate slowed in mid-innings. Marvan Atapattu never got going in his 36-ball 18 – not that he needed to with Jayasuriya blazing away at the other end – but Flintoff removed him via a thin edge through to the keeper (118 for 2), and after greeting Jayawardene with a screaming lifter outside off, uprooted his off stump for 4 (132 for 3).

Jayasuriya duly reached his century off 78 balls, and when he fell – an unexpected consolation for Hoggard - Upul Chandana provided some late-innings oomph with a 13-ball 30. England required 241 to win, at more than 7.5 runs per over, which looked a very distant prospect when Knight fell in the first over for a third-ball duck. But England, it seems, are at last getting the hang of this one-day lark.

England 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Nick Knight, 3 Nasser Hussain (capt), 4 Graham Thorpe, 5 Alec Stewart (wk), 6 Ronnie Irani, 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Paul Collingwood, 9 Darren Gough, 10 Matthew Hoggard, 11 James Kirtley.

Sri Lanka 1 Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), 2 Romesh Kaluwitharana (wk), 3 Marvan Atapattu, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Russell Arnold, 6 Naveed Nawaz, 7 Avishka Gunawardene, 8 Upul Chandana, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Nuwan Zoysa, 11 Dilhara Fernando.

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