NatWest series: England undone by severe middle-order panic attack

After the frenetic cauldron of Edgbaston on Saturday, a subdued and sleepy Old Trafford proved to be the ideal venue for Sri Lanka to shake off the hangover of being knocked out of this tournament by India two days ago.

The result of this NatWest series game was of no consequence other than pride, prize money and personal performance, following the qualification of the home side and India for the final at Lord's on Saturday. However, in recording a 23-run victory over a lacklustre England, Sri Lanka at least know they will not leave these shores without a solitary success in this triangular series.

It was their quartet of spin bowlers who the visitors had to thank for at long last giving the beleaguered squad something to smile about. In a midsummer tournament that has thus far been dominated by the batsmen and seam bowlers, spin was bound to play a part somewhere along the way. It is, however, difficult to imagine there has been another game where the spinners could have bowled such a high proportion of the overs.

England were disappointing yesterday, with their all-round performance being well below par, and, even if Sri Lanka failed to fire on all cylinders themselves, it was their greater tenacity and desperation to win this game that proved to be the difference between the two sides. The two run outs and a marvellous catch by Marvan Atapattu during a tense final 10 overs were examples of this and took the game away from England.

At the half-way stage, having posted the modest total of 229, most spectators in the 18,500 crowd would have expected England to coast to a comfortable victory, and that appeared to be the case as firstly Marcus Trescothick, Nick Knight and Nasser Hussain took Sri Lanka's seamers apart with their usual gusto.

On 100 for 2 England seemed to be cruising on a pitch that failed to play as well as it looked, because it offered significant help for the spinners. The home side, having already lost their two left-handed openers to injudicious shots, then lost their captain to a needless run-out, where he was not to blame, and this was the moment the game changed.

The introduction of Sri Lanka's diminutive spin bowlers had already stemmed the flow of runs and realising the arrival of two new batsmen to the crease was the opportunity to further restrict runs, Sanath Jayasuriya set fields that made runs as hard to come by as hen's teeth.

Acknowledging a partnership was required, Ronnie Irani firstly with Alec Stewart, and then Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood attempted to get themselves in and play their way to the target but they only succeeded in digging themselves into a deeper hole. This created the sort of panic that will have alarmed the watching England coach, Duncan Fletcher, with the middle and lower order failing to do their job and finish the game off.

Earlier, after winning the toss Sri Lanka were also guilty of throwing away a good start and it was Alex Tudor, making his one-day international debut, who started the rot when he dismissed Jayasuriya. Coming into the side at the expense of James Kirtley, who broke his right hand in practice on Saturday, Tudor got one to bounce steeply at the tourists' captain, who lobbed a simple catch to cover.

This heralded the arrival of Kumar Sangakkara at the crease and it was his match-winning innings that enabled Sri Lanka to reach a competitive score. After running out Atapattu who was dismissed by a direct hit from Collingwood at mid-on – England's first of the series – the elegant left-hander played his best innings of the summer. His in, out, in, out, in selection for this one-day series, may get him an audition for the hokey cokey song, but his 70 runs yesterday should at last get him an extended run in the side.

He gained good support from Mahele Jayawardene and at 162 for 2, with more than 16 overs left Sri Lanka looked well placed for a decent score. However another run-out, through an excellent piece of teamwork between Tudor at fine leg, and Alec Stewart, hitting the stumps with a flick out of the back of his hand, led to the start of an all too familiar middle-order collapse.

Making the most of Sri Lanka's incompetence was the surprise package of Michael Vaughan's off-spin. Within career best figures of 4 for 22 in six overs, he had a 15-ball spell where he took 4 for 7, but it is a wee bit early to think England have unearthed another all-rounder. This was a limited bowler having a good day.

Jeremy Snape, playing instead of Ashley Giles – who with hindsight should also have played – was the only other change to the England side. The Gloucestershire spinner was the best of Hussain's bowlers despite going off in the middle of his spell with a finger injury after he dropped a difficult caught-and-bowled chance off Sangakkara, when the batsman was on 33.

The success of these two should have given Hussain an early indication that their run chase was going to be harder than it first appeared, and the only thing the England captain can be grateful for is that his side will not encounter pitches like this during the World Cup in South Africa early next year.

The Sri Lanka coach, Dav Whatmore, welcomed the win but was rather less impressed with the schedule imposed on his team in this series.

Their defeat to India at Edgbaston on Saturday – their fourth in succession – ended their chances of making the final, and Whatmore said: "Playing back-to-back is hard. We tried to change the schedule before the tournament.

"We got to Manchester from Birmingham at 9.30pm on Saturday night... all over the world we are trying to change that sort of schedule. But the players did themselves proud."

Old Trafford scoreboard

Sri Lanka won toss

SRI LANKA

M S Atapattu run out 34
*S T Jayasuriya c Hussain b Tudor 23
K C Sangakkara lbw b Vaughan 70
D P M D Jayawardene run out 42
R P Arnold c and b Snape 6
L P C Silva c Collingwood b Vaughan 9
T T Samaraweera st Stewart b Vaughan 3
U D U Chandana c sub b Flintoff 15
W P U C J Vaas b Vaughan 0
D N T Zoysa c Knight b Gough 9
G P Wickremasinghe not out 3

Extras (lb8, w5, nb1) 15

Total (194 min, 49.4 overs) 229

Fall: 1-59 (Jayasuriya), 2-73 (Atapattu), 3-162 (Jayawardene), 4-185 (Arnold), 5-191 (Sangakkara), 6-200 (Samaraweera), 7-205 (Silva), 8-205 (Vaas), 9-224 (Zoysa).

Bowling: Gough 10-0-51-1 (w3) (4-0-12-0, 3-0-23-0, 3-0-16-1); Tudor 8-1-44-1 (7-1-37-1, 1-0-7-0); Flintoff 5.4-0-29-1 (nb1, w1) (5-0-26-0, 0.4-0-3-1); Irani 10-0-40-0 (one spell); Snape 10-2-34-1 (6-1-26-0, 4-1-8-1); Vaughan 6-1-22-4 (w1) (one spell).

Progress: 50: 42 min, 62 balls. 15 overs score: 79 for 2. 100: 85 min, 118 balls. 150: 125 min, 192 balls. 200: 167 min, 264 balls.

Sangakkara 50: 80 min, 59 balls, 5 fours.

ENGLAND

M E Trescothick b Zoysa 27
N V Knight b Zoysa 29
*N Hussain run out 28
M P Vaughan c and b Chandana 14
A J Stewart c Chandana b Samaraweera 8
R C Irani c Zoysa b Jayasuriya 28
A Flintoff b Jayasuriya 7
P D Collingwood run out 29
J N Snape not out 15
A J Tudor c Atapattu b Jayasuriya 6
D Gough run out 0

Extras (b1, lb10, w4) 15

Total (188 min, 47.4 overs) 206

Fall: 1-37 (Trescothick), 2-76 (Knight), 3-100 (Vaughan), 4-108 (Hussain), 5-118 (Stewart), 6-135 (Flintoff), 7-160 (Irani), 8-186 (Collingwood), 9-200 (Tudor).

Bowling: Vaas 6-0-29-0 (one spell); Zoysa 7-0-42-2 (w3) (4-0-29-1, 3-0-13-1); Wickremasinghe 1-0-10-0; Arnold 5-0-24-0 (one spell each); Chandana 9.4-1-25-1 (w1) (6-1-10-1, 3.4-0-15-0); Samaraweera 10-1-27-1; Jayasuriya 9-0-38-3 (one spell each).

Progress: 50: 39 min, 52 balls. 15 overs score: 84 for 2. 100: 80 min, 106 balls. 150: 149 min, 223 balls. 200: 183 min, 280 balls.

Man of the match: K C Sangakkara.

Umpires: D L Orchard (SA) and P Willey (Eng).