NOTTINGHAM (England), June 28: England beat Sri Lanka by 44 runs in the first match of the triangular one-day series on Thursday (partly reported in Friday’s edition).
England set a daunting target of 294 to win off 50 overs, Romesh Kaluwitharana (52) and Marvan Atapattu (47) put Sri Lanka in with a chance of victory. But their run chase petered out, finishing on 249 for nine with Flintoff grabbing three wickets and Paul Collingwood and James Kirtley two apiece.
Sri Lanka made a useful start to their reply and were up with the asking rate having reached 134 for two at the halfway stage.
But Collingwood then dismissed Kaluwitharana (52) and Mahela Jayawardene (29) in successive overs to check the tourists progress.
Kaluwitharana was well caught by Graham Thorpe while Jayawardene was bowled middle stump by the medium pacer.
Russel Arnold and Kumar Sangakkara added 62 from 68 balls before Arnold was unluckily run out to be fifth man out with the score on 214.
Flintoff, who finished with three for 49, then sent back Sangakkara and Upul Chandana for the addition of one further run as the tourists ground to a halt.
Scoreboard
ENGLAND
M.Trescothick c Sangakkara b Vaas 26
N.Knight lbw b Zoysa 20
N.Hussain b Fernando 32
G.Thorpe b Fernando 18
A.Stewart b Vaas 83
R.Irani c Jayawardene b Arnold 39
A.Flintoff not out 50
P.Collingwood not out 10
EXTRAS (b-4 lb-4 nb-4 w-3) 15
TOTAL (for six wickets, 50 overs) 293
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-39 2-47 3-103 4-104 5-199 6-283
DID NOT BAT: A.Giles, J.Kirtley, M.Hoggard
BOWLING: Vaas 9-0-58-2, Zoysa 7-0-46-1, Fernando 8-0-46-2, Chandana 10-0-43-0, Jayasuriya 10-0-51-0, Arnold 6-0-41-1
SRI LANKA
S.Jayasuriya c Hussain b Hoggard 12
Kaluwitharana c Thorpe b Collingwood 52
M.Atapattu c Irani b Flintoff 47
M.Jayawardene b Collingwood 29
R.Arnold run out (Hoggard) 29
K.Sangakkara c Kirtley b Flintoff 22
U.Chandana c Thorpe b Flintoff 1
N.Nawaz not out 15
C.Vaas b Kirtley 10
N.Zoyza b Kirtley 0
D.Fernando not out 5
EXTRAS (b-1 lb-10 nb-6 w-10) 27
TOTAL (for nine wickets, 50 overs) 249
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-19 2-91 3-149 4-152 5-214 6-215 7-215 8-238 9-238