Sri Lanka rout England in last ODI

Romesh Kaluwitharana hammered an unbeaten 102 as Sri Lanka powered to a 10-wicket victory over England on Tuesday to complete a 3-0 sweep of the one-day internationals.

Chasing a target of 166, Sri Lanka cruised home in stroke-filled style with 16.1 of their 50 overs to spare in the third and final match of a series which they have dominated.

Kaluwitharana scored his runs from 117 balls, hitting 20 fours, and Marvan Atapattu, leading the side in the absence of the injured Sanath Jayasuriya, hit 53 not out as Sri Lanka condemned England to one of their heaviest defeats in limited-overs cricket.

Earlier, Sri Lanka restricted England to 165 for nine in their 50 overs after a four-wicket burst from left-arm pacemen Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa.

On a pitch with some uneven bounce, Vaas and Zoysa struck the telling blows by dispatching four of the top five batsmen cheaply - Alec Stewart (14) and fellow opener Marcus Trescothick (16), Nick Knight (7) and captain Graham Thorpe (0).

It was the last game of England's tour of Sri Lanka, which reached its peak when they won the three-Test series 2-1.

Scoreboard

England
M.Trescothick b Vaas 16
A.Stewart b Vaas 14
N.Knight b Zoysa 7
G.Hick c de Saram b Dharmasena 46
G.Thorpe c Sangakkara b Zoysa 0
A.Flintoff c Dharmasena b Samaraweera 24
C.White b Arnold 4
M.Ealham c sub (Dilshan) b Dharmasena 28
R.Croft c Jayawardene b Vaas 4
D.Gough not out 0
A.Mullally not out 8
Extras (LB4, W10) 14
Total (for nine wickets, 50 overs) 165
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-36, 3-39, 4-39, 5-88, 6-105, 7-152, 8-156, 9-157.
Bowling: Vaas 8-5-13-3, Zoysa 7-1-39-2 (w1), Dharmasena 10-0-35-2 (w3), Muralitharan 10-0-29-0 (w2), Sarmaraweera 7-0-26-1 (w4), Arnold 8-1-19-1.
Sri Lanka
M.Atapattu not out 53
R.Kaluwitharana not out 102
Extras (LB2, W3, NB6) 11
Total (for no wicket, 33.5 overs) 166.
Did not bat: M.Jayawardene, K.Sangakkara, R.Arnold, I. de Saram, K.Dharmasena, T.Samaraweera, C.Vaas, N.Zoysa, M. Muralitharan.
Bowling: Gough 7-0-30-0 (nb1, w1), Mullallly 8-0-51-0 (nb2, w2), White 4-0-18-0 (nb2), Croft 8-0-39-0 (nb1), Ealham 6.5-1-26-0.

Result: Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets for a 3-0 series win

First one-day international, Dambulla: Sri Lanka won by five wickets.
Second one-day international, Colombo: Sri Lanka won by 66 runs.

Mail Cricket Editor