Sri Lanka vs England, 5th ODI at Kandy, , Dec 10 2014 - Ball by Ball Commentary

Five down, two to go in this series. We stay in Pallekele for sixth rubber on Saturday and it's still all to play for so join us on Saturday at 10am local time, 4.30am GMT, see you then...

Presentation time. Joe Root is Man of the Match for his superb match-winning century.

Here's Angelo Mathews: "We were 20-30 runs short but nothing can be taken away from Joe Root. I was disappointed with the spinners really. Senanayake was brilliant, we banked on him. It could have been different with Herath but we had the spinners to win. The break wasn't a disadvantage, it was just a pretty flat performance."

Alastair Cook taking the praise for his side's second win: "That was a fantastic couple of days. The way we bowled was fantastic. Kumar played very well but Rooty has played a knock of equal class. James has taken his chance and played so well on two difficult wickets. I was a little concerned about the pitch this morning, we wanted to bat under lights but Rooty and Taylor played superbly well. We didn't talk about the chase overnight really. It didn't make a difference. The better side won in this game."

We thought Sri Lanka would have every chance of defending 239 on a slow, dry wicket but it's played far better than expected. There was almost no turn whatsoever and the seamers weren't really given a good enough chance to try and exert pressure. England knocked the spinners around very well indeed and there was no drama at all outside the first 10 overs when two wickets fell to Senanayake bowling straight deliveries. This should be a real confidence boost for England with the sixth ODI to come also on this ground on Saturday.

A fine chase from England, they have won by five wickets and controlled things very well indeed. That's the highest chase in an ODI at Pallekele, led superbly by first James Taylor and then Joe Root who's made his third ODI century, a very mature calm innings. He shared two excellent partnerships, first with Taylor to get England out of a little hole at the start of the innings and then with Ravi Bopara who was the perfect foil. There was a hint of a wobble but overall this has been a very solid run chase and England reduce the arrears to 3-2 in the series with two rubbers to play.

Where's Malinga when you need him, can Dilshan do a good impression?

So it goes to the last over, just two to win...

Root on 96, bring um home Joe is the message from the England fans...

A nerve-settler that boundary...

Dilshan, cha cha cha, Dilshan, cha cha cha...

Have England been too steady here? All of a sudden more than a run-a-ball is needed and now there's a new man at the crease...

The crowd have come to life, cheering every ball here...

Suddenly a tad tighter than it was looking...

Getting a bit twitchy is Root, five from a fine century...

Just given the crowd certainly a sense of Root under pressure those two false strokes...