Sri Lanka vs England, 1st Test at Galle, Mar 26 2012 - Ball by Ball Commentary

So England lose their fourth Test match in a row and Sri Lanka gain another significant victory. But it was a fabulous Test and another great advert for the best form of the game. George Dobell's report is here and there will be plenty of analysis and reaction coming up on ESPNcricinfo so stick around for all the best coverage. The second match of this series begins next Tuesday, April 3 but before that we have West Indies v Australia in another T20 encounter on Friday at 1900 BST. Until next time, keep netting...

Time for the presentation...

"In truth we made too many mistakes to win the game," Andrew Strauss says. "We left ourselves too much to do, mainly with our batting in the first innings. In international cricket there's no room for mistakes.

"We had a great position in the first innings to go big but we all felt too softly. We probably didn't get the balance between attack and defence right.

"It's frustrating cause I feel like i'm playing well," Strauss says on his own form.

"It's been a tough period for us to get things right but the boys worked really hard to improve as a team and today we showed a lot of character. We just had to hang in there for a while," Mahela Jayawardene says.

"With 340 on the board the bowlers were much more relaxed. Rangana Hearth has been around a long time and Suraj Randiv is settling into his groove now and can become a good bowler for us."

Man of the Match for his 12 wickets is Rangana Herath, who receives a trophy that looks like something off the Krypton Factor.

All 10 wickets in this second innings falling to spin, Herath has 12 in the match...England frailties against spin bowling prove their downfall once again. The last six wickets falling for 31 runs and in the end their record chase attempt proved a bridge too far.

Jonathan Trott played the Dirk Bogarde role with a fabulous innings, giving England a fighting chance but ultimately he received no support, there were only two partnerships above fifty in the second innings and that is simply not good enough to build a big score.

But ultimately it was the first innings failures where England lost this match. Firstly the missed chances against Mahela Jayawardene - who's played the match-winning knock in this game - cost them the chance to bowl Sri Lanka out cheaper and the batting flopped to leave them too far behind and chasing the game.

England did well chasing the game though, fighting back in the third innings and then had chances to fire Sri Lanka out, the last two wickets in that third innings added 87 - enough for the difference between these sides.

For Sri Lanka, they have't played world-beating cricket here but the Jayawardene's - first Mahela's brilliant 180 and then Prasanna's vital 61 - were their stars that set up the chance for the spinners Herath and Randiv to put England under pressure. It's a momentus occasion for Sri Lanka, a first victory at home since Muttiah Muralitharan retired.

So last chance saloon and Monty Panesar...could say he owes England a few runs...

Is there more drama to come in this Test...

So Anderson in as we resume...

That is now tea and the comeback from Sri Lanka has probably won them the game, 81 runs from victory and just Anderson and Panesar to come for England. Swann had to contribute at least a 20 for England to get closer but now it is a long shot once more...see you in 15 minutes...

Last over before tea potentially...

How this game has changed so quickly...