England v Sri Lanka, 2006

At Chester-le-Street, June 24. Sri Lanka won by eight wickets. Toss: England. One-day international debut: A. G. R. Loudon.

Jayawardene became the third member of Sri Lanka's top three to make a hundred as the tourists won the series at the earliest opportunity. Harmison and Plunkett were hopelessly wayward in front of their home crowd. Bowling short and wide is usually inadvisable: against Jayasuriya and Jayawardene, it was masochistic. With Mahmood also expensive again, it was hard not to sympathise with England captain Strauss. Earlier, Bell's painstaking 77 from 114 balls said much about the respective accuracy of the two attacks; Jayawardene scored at a run a ball. Even without Muralitharan, who had left the tour to be with his sick son, Sri Lanka demonstrated a basic professionalism that seemed beyond England, who also made fools of themselves by trying to sledge Jayawardene after the umpires correctly refused a substitute for Pietersen on account of his pre-existing injury. Jayawardene was untroubled, and his delighted grin as he observed debutant Alex Loudon's doosra spoke volumes.

Man of the Match: D. P. M. D. Jayawardene.