England were back home for the first time since September 2005 and looked to maintain their Test standards, which saw them keep their second place in the ICC Test Championship in India, and the teams were also competing for sixth place in the ICC ODI Championship as both England and Sri Lanka were coming off the back of two lost ODI tours on the Asian sub-continent, against India and Pakistan respectively.

Sri Lanka, however, had taken a catch off a no-ball, a close lbw against Kevin Pietersen turned down off Chaminda Vaas, and Alastair Cook a couple of inches from being run out.

Tharanga went five overs later, though with a more successful partnership of 21, the same number of runs the third Sri Lankan, Kumar Sangakkara, managed to make before caught off Sajid Mahmood, his first Test dismissal.

At this time, they were 81 for two: fifteen minutes later, the scoreboard read 85 for six, with three batsmen out for ducks including debutante Kapugedera who fell on his first Test ball.

The day's play was curtailed by bad light, which left Sri Lanka at 91 for six, fourteen of which came off English extras, while Mahmood's debut figures read three for nine.

Eventually both batsmen were caught by Jones off spinner Monty Panesar, with Sangakkara's innings lasting four and a half hours for 65 runs, but at this point England required seven wickets and had two days to do it in.

Batting through 189 minutes, the pair secured the draw for Sri Lanka, with Kulasekara even hitting a couple of sixes as he ended with 64 when Pietersen held a catch off Hoggard's bowling.

Indeed, the tenth-wicket stand frustrated England until stumps: Muralitharan faced out that half-hour, scoring one run, while Vaas got his half-century before the close of play.

Sri Lanka won the toss and skipper Mahela Jayawardene chose to bat; it seemed that they made the wrong choice as England crippled them to 82/8 with the help of a swinging wicket, before Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga put up a half century partnership and the team were all out for 141.

Matthew Hoggard's swinging and cult-hero Monty Panesar put on impressive shows but regular ODI player, Liam Plunkett, was the real boon of the side.

Despite the hot-headed player's skills, England were not fully confident at the slip, Cook being saved by a dropped ball by the Sri Lanka skipper and Muttiah Muralitharan proved quite a threat.

Pietersen opened the second day, 80 minutes late thanks to rain, with nightwatchmen Hoggard, the latter putting on his normal single figures, this time 3 runs, but holding the line for 36 balls.

The third man, Alastair Cook held out for the rest of the innings though achieving 34 not out; during this time Strauss fell to a controversial catch, replays showed it popped off his pads.

However, England were unable to finish things off and Chaminda Vaas, who had shown resistance batting throughout the series, added 92 runs with the last two wickets.

Their body language was positive, and Mahela Jayawardene displayed good strategic application with the field placings he set, and frustrated England's batsmen in the process.

Sri Lanka showed application in their approach to batting, knowing that they did not need to score at a quick rate given the amount of time remaining in the match.

All was left to do was for Monty Panesar to dispel the popular belief that he was incapable of batting – he proceeded to attack Muralitharan's bowling – hitting 3 fours and one remarkable swept six on the way to a career best 26.

Although England had recorded their highest score of the series batting first - 321/7, the Sri Lankans were enjoying such a rich streak of success that this normally challenging total posed no real threat.

However, any hopes that the 5-0 whitewash would be averted were quickly dispelled by Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga, who both launched into the bowling attack which they knew had had its confidence already battered from the previous encounters of the series.

Andrew Strauss kept turning to different bowlers, even calling on the spin of Jamie Dalrymple as early as the 8th over in a futile attempt to stem the flow of runs.

But Jayasuriya and Tharanga were unstoppable, and although their scoring rates tapered off slightly when fielding restrictions were lifted, they continued on their merry way and racked up an enormous partnership of 286, which was broken in the 32nd over - with only 36 more needed to win at this point.