Ravi Bopara and Paul Nixon put together 87, a record for the seventh wicket for England in World Cup games © Getty Images Enlarge

No-one would have anticipated a last-over finish to the match when Paul Collingwood fell in the 34th over, leaving England tottering at 133 for 6, requiring 103 more to win in less than 17 overs. That they finally made the contest such a gripping one was thanks to a fantastic 87-run stand between Ravi Bopara and Paul Nixon, a record for the seventh wicket for England in World Cup matches.

The key to their partnership was the way they rotated the strike and kept the score ticking over. Of the 83 runs scored off the bat during the stand, 43 came through singles (52%) and only 22 through boundaries (26.5%). Neither batsman exhibited extravagant strokeplay, but busily accumulated and wasted few opportunities to score - of the 92 balls they faced, only 35 were runless (38%). Compare that with the overall dot-ball percentage for both teams - 55.5% for Sri Lanka and 54% for England - and it's easy to understand how they took England so close.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, were almost left to rue their poor batting in the last ten overs of their innings. After 40 overs, they were 183 for 4 - 24 runs and two wickets better than England's 159 for 6 - but they managed just 52 off the last ten.

While Sri Lanka managed to eke out a win, there was a more convincing win for one of their team members in a head-to-head contest that was reckoned to be the key to this match - Murali vs Pietersen. Kevin Pietersen's handling of spinners so far in his international career has been nothing short of sensational: he dismantled Shane Warne quite spectacularly in the 2005 Ashes, scoring 308 off 522 balls for just five dismissals. Against Muttiah Muralitharan in Tests, Pietersen has creamed 134 runs from 154 balls.

In today's encounter, though, Muralitharan clearly won the day, conceding just six runs off 14 balls and getting his man too. Apart from a powerful sweep shot for four, Pietersen could only manage a couple of singles, and finally fell trying to use his feet and throw Murali off his rhythm. When he was dismissed, and Andrew Flintoff and Collingwood followed within three overs, it seemed the end of England's chances, before Bopara and Nixon turned it around.

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