Sri Lanka 229 (Sangakkara 70, Vaughan 4-22) beat England 206 by 23 runs
scorecard

After the noise and colour of Saturday's match at Edgbaston, there was a slightly surreal morning-after-the-night-before feeling at Old Trafford. Sri Lanka had nothing but pride to play for, the pitch was slow, low and uninspiring, and the crowd looked on in soporific silence, reserving their loudest cheers for ironic digs at England's fielders. Even one of the umpires (Dave Orchard) was late and only arrived half-an-hour into the match - he'd thought it was a day-night affair.

But by the halfway point, England seemed to have risen above the torpid nature of the day. Jeremy Snape and Michael Vaughan, two of the slowest bowlers in the game, had stifled Sri Lanka's best attacking intentions, and restricted them to 229 all out. Vaughan, back in the side at the expense of Graham Thorpe, returned astonishing career-best figures of 4 for 22 in six overs, and Snape overcame a damaged hand, courtesy of a Kumar Sangakkara straight-drive, to return 1 for 34 from his ten overs.

When England galloped to 100 for 2 in the 17th over, victory hardly seemed in doubt. Nuwan Zoysa had accounted for Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight, both bowled attempting lackadaisical prod-steers that suggested that their intensity levels weren't quite as high as they might have been. But then the spinners took over.

Vaughan played across the line of Upul Chandana's second delivery, and lobbed a simple return catch (100 for 3). Alec Stewart committed the heinous crime of running out his captain (108 for 4), and then failed to make amends by chipping a tame catch to Chandana at midwicket, off the bowling of Thilan Samaraweera (118 for 5). Three wickets had fallen for 18, and a few flutters went around the dressing-room.

Those flutters got even worse. Andrew Flintoff didn't find conditions to his liking at all, and was bowled by Sanath Jayasuriya for an attritional 7, from 16 balls (135 for 6), and the writing was truly on the wall when Ronnie Irani top-edged an attempted sweep to Zoysa, moments after a similar shot had resulted in a rare boundary.

At 160 for 7 England were very grateful for the depth of their batting, but Paul Collingwood was run out for 29, and it was asking too much of Jeremy Snape, playing his first one-day international on home soil, to shepherd England home at nine an over. Alex Tudor - in his first one-dayer anywhere - swept to Atapattu at short fine leg for 6, and when Gough became the third run-out victim of the innings, England had lost nine wickets for 130 in 35 overs.

Sri Lanka could sympathise with that, having earlier lost their last eight wickets for 67. Kumar Sangakkara top-scored with an excellent 70, and Mahela Jayawardene was in fine touch for his 42. But when he was run out by some superb work from Tudor on the fine-leg boundary, Sri Lanka's innings crumbled to Vaughan and Snape.

Snape, who had returned to the field after splitting his fingers attempting to catch Sangakkara off his own bowling, made the most of an easier offering from Russel Arnold (185 for 4), at which point Vaughan took over. Vaughan trapped Sangakkara lbw (191 for 5), then cleverly speared the ball down the leg side as Thilan Samaraweera advanced down the track. A wide was called, but it scarcely mattered as Stewart whipped off the bails (200 for 6).

In Vaughan's next over, Chamara Silva lobbed a sweep to Collingwood at short fine leg, then, two balls later, Chaminda Vaas was bowled round his legs for a duck. Flintoff, who had bowled just five overs all day, and Gough cleaned up the tail, and England believed they had cleaned up the match. But Sri Lanka, though they looked at times as though they were already on that plane back home, haven't set off for the airport just yet.

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