DAMBULLA (Sri Lanka), Nov 18: Sri Lanka dismissed England for their second-lowest total of 88 to win the first one-day international by 10 wickets here on Tuesday.

England, electing to take first strike on a seaming wicket, slumped to 67-9 before the last-wicket pair of Ashley Giles and James Anderson guided them past their lowest one-day total of 86 against Australia two years ago.

Sri Lanka surpassed the easy target in the 14th over to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

The second and third matches will be played at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo on Friday and Sunday.

Openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana showed no signs of rustiness in Sri Lanka’s first international match since June by making light of England’s bowling.

Left-handed Jayasuriya hammered an unbeaten 46 off 41 balls, studded with six boundaries and a six.

Kaluwitharna returned with 36 off 42 balls containing seven hits to the fence.

England, fresh from a 3-0 rout of Bangladesh, caved in against Sri Lanka’s new pace duo of Dinusha Fernando and Nuwan Kulasekara, although veteran Chaminda Vaas was the chief destroyer with three for 15.

Fernando began the rout by taking a return catch to dismiss debutant opener Andrew Strauss and then bowled captain Michael Vaughan with one.

Vaas removed left-handed opener Marcus Trescothick and stopped all-rounder Andrew Flintoff’s run of good scores as England slipped to 26-4 by the 13th over.

Flintoff, who had scored three unbeaten half-centuries against Bangladesh, was caught by Kumar Sangakkara in the covers.

Vaas returned for his second spell to terminate the innings with the wicket of Giles.

Giles made 21, the second highest score after Paul Collingwood’s 31, as England struggled to put bat to ball in seaming conditions.

Kulasekara, making his debut along with Fernando, scalped all-rounder Rikki Clarke and Ian Blackwell even as seasoned spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Upul Chandana removed the lower order.

Scoreboard

ENGLAND