Jade Dernbach held his nerve as England beat Sri Lanka by 16 runs in the fifth one-day international at Old Trafford to seal a 3-2 series win over the World Cup finalists on Saturday.
Sri Lanka, chasing 269 for victory, finished on 252 all out with 10 balls of their innings left.
Dernbach dismissed dangerman Angelo Mathews for a near run-a-ball 62 with a clever slower ball that the all-rounder sliced to Tim Bresnan at backward-point. He then finished the match by yorking Lasith Malinga for a return of two for 49.
The tourists were in trouble at 131 for five, needing 138 more runs to win, when Mathews and Jeevan Mendis came together with 20 overs left, but their sixth-wicket partnership of 102 troubled England, until Mendis holed out to the left-arm spin of Samit Patel.
Malinga struck James Anderson for six to get the tourists’ target down to 17 off 12 balls, but Dernbach’s double strike gave England captain Alastair Cook a win in his first series in permanent charge of the one-day side and his team a measure of revenge after a 10-wicket World Cup quarter-final defeat by Sri Lanka in Colombo in March.
Sri Lanka’s reply got off to a dreadful start when they slumped to 12 for two inside four overs, fast-medium bowler Bresnan removing both openers on his way to three for 49 in nine overs.
Debutant batsman Dimuth Karunaratne edged Bresnan to Jonathan Trott at first slip for 4 and captain Tillakaratne Dilshan fell for the same score when he pulled the Yorkshireman straight to Dernbach at long-leg.
Batting ace Mahela Jayawardene managed just 9 before he mistimed a drive off Anderson to Cook at mid-off to the delight of a capacity crowd.
Dinesh Chandimal counterattacked by driving Bresnan for six and repeating the dose against off-spinner Graeme Swann, but Chandimal, who made a superb unbeaten century in Sri Lanka’s six-wicket win at Lord’s the previous weekend, was out for 54 when he raced down the pitch to Swann, only to be beaten in the flight before being stumped by Craig Kieswetter.
Chandimal’s exit ended a partnership of 94 with experienced left-hander Kumar Sangakkara that had taken Sri Lanka to 123 for four in the 27th over. Sangakkara followed soon afterwards, chopping on to Bresnan for 48.
That England made 268 for nine was largely down to a fourth-wicket stand of 118 between man-of-the-match Trott (72) and Eoin Morgan (57).
They had initially appeared set for a huge total when Cook put on 85 in quick time with Kieswetter after winning the toss to follow the pair’s unbroken stand of 171 in a crushing 10-wicket win at Trent Bridge on Wednesday.
Cook, who had made 119 and 95 not out in his previous two innings, was deceived on 31 by a sharply turning ball from Suraj Randiv and stumped by Sangakkara.
That was the first of five wickets for off-spinner Randiv, who finished with a career-best five for 42.
Trott then completed his patient half-century, before an unlucky dismissal saw a pull off Randiv get caught up in his body and trickle onto the stumps before he could kick the ball away.
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