Third ODI vs England at Lord's today:

Sri Lanka must bat first

Elmo RODRIGOPULLE reporting from England

CRICKET: Sri Lanka did well to beat England by 69 runs and win the Second one-day NatWest international against England and level the series 1-all with three to go, with the Third one beginning at the holy land of cricket, Lord’s today (Sunday).

Sri Lanka were unfortunate to lose the first one-dayer at the Kia Oval on Tuesday when rain and bad light forced Duckworth and Lewis to don pads and decide on the outcome of the game which was reduced to 32 overs a side with England winning convincingly by 110 runs. The bad weather that had been following the Lankans everywhere they played, for once smiled on the Lankans and the sun was out much to the delight of the Lankans who made use of the good conditions to roast and have a sumptuous meal of the Brits at Headingley, Leeds on Friday.

The Lankans who have a tendency of winning the toss and putting the opposition in and then having egg on their face, must now be wiser after the victory at Headingley by winning convincingly by batting first. Alastair Cook the England skipper boobed when he won the toss and asked Sri Lanka to bat on a batting paradise.

Sri Lanka captain Tillekeratne Dilshan, if he wins the toss at Lord’s must not hesitate to bat first. A big score and England don’t have the batsmen who have the skill and the temperament to chase. In losing 6 wickets for 39 when under pressure showed their weakness and dislike to chase.

Sri Lanka’s victory push was made possible by Mahela Jayawardena who played, probably one of his better innings in this style of game. He is a connossieurs delight when he gets going and he played some breath taking strokes in making 144 which was his career best in this form of game.

When Sri Lanka lost Dilshan and Chandimal to stupid run outs and were tottering at 45 for 2, it was sensible batting by Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara that restored sanity to the batting with a 159 run stand for the third wicket that set the launching pad for the batsmen following such as Angelo Mathews and Nuwan Kulasekera to bolster the total to 309. Jayawardena who was hopelessly out of form in the Test series, out to some of the best deliveries bowled, is now in good form as his carefully carved out innings showed. When he gets going there is no better batting treat to watch.

With Sangakkara who is also batting in good form, they just toyed with the England bowlers, hitting them to any part of the field they wished in their match winning stand. After the Jayawardena, Sangakkara show, Angelo Mathews hit out strongly to make a quick 46 in 30 balls and take Sri Lanka to a score of 309 for 5 which was always going to be a big ask for England.

When England began their chase, Dilshan handled his bowlers well with some intelligent field placing and the England batsmen were always struggling for runs.

The fielding in the air and on the ground was fantastic. The fielders supported the bowlers admirably. The bowlers - Lasith Malinga, Suranga Lakmal, Suraj Randiv and Jeevan Mendis bowled great spells to have the England batsmen in all sorts of trouble and dismiss them for 240 and win by 69 runs. England lost their last 6 wickets for 39 which was a shame. The batsmen looked like lame ducks.

Now that the Lankans have the Brits by the Jagular, there must be no letting up until they win the remaining three games, hold aloft the NatWest Trophy and fly back with their heads held high.