Player of the Match
Player of the Match

END OF OVER:
50 | 4 Runs 2 Wkts | ENG: 293/8 (8 runs required, RR: 5.86)

  • James Tredwell1 (2b)
  • James Anderson0 (0b)
  • Lasith Malinga10-2-52-3
  • Nuwan Kulasekara10-0-81-0

7pm: We've had a Lord's Saturday to savour, a close match at last and two marvellous, contrasting hundreds. You can read all about it, whilst straightening your clothes and rearranging your hair, in Andrew McGlashan's match report. The win-lose sequence continues, though I doubt we can rely on that for a prediction... Join us again to see which way the dice fall in Birmingham. For now, it's goodnight from Alex and me. Cheerio!

6.50pm: Right, presentations time, starting with England captain Alastair Cook: "It was looking pretty bleak before those two got going. When you're chasing 300 at Lord's, it's hard to defend, we couldn't quite get going but Jos showed what a special player he is. When you lose wickets in the first couple of overs you have to do some rebuilding, we know we have to play those first 30 overs better if we're going to chase down 300. Can't fault the commitment of the lads and we'll have a one-off game now to decide the series. The pitch didn't do as much as we thought it might but we did well to keep them to 300. It's a question of balance, if you want five frontline bowlers or some part time; when it comes off, we're happy. We're disappointed to be on the losing side but we'll go to Edgbaston confident."

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews: "That was one hell of a game. Tillakaratne and Sangakkara set the platform but we fell away a bit in the middle. Jos's innings was one of the best I've seen, he played brilliantly. The spinners did well, Malinga and Kulasekara are the most experienced guys in our bowling and that paid off at the end. We had to raise our hands up [after making 67] and score those runs, we know that if we get 250 we have the bowlers to defend it. We can take a lot of positives from here for the deciding match."

Jos Buttler was named Man of the Match: "That's the best I've ever played, it was brilliant to play that well but really disappointed not to get over the line. Me and Ravi had some fun, we knew we were miles behind and it gave us licence, the partnership built and then we thought we had the game but we lost Ravi and couldn't quite finish it. It showed how hard it was to stop the scoring if you got a partnership going but there's always areas you can improve and we'll try and put them into place for Edgbaston. Kulasekara bowled a really good penultimate over and that put extra pressure on the final over from Malinga. [Test] is a different format, so it's about trying to improve every day and see where that gets me."

6.40pm: We've had an absolute corker here today, credit to Malinga for holding his nerve at the end and denying the romantics a helluva story. Jos Buttler's century - off 61 balls, the fastest by an Englishman in ODIs - came within an ace of winning the game from another magnificent ton, that of Kumar Sangakkara, whose 112 underpinned what turned out to be a match-winning score of 300. This is the fifth time in ODIs that both keepers have scored hundreds, and the third involving Kumar. England were 10 for 2 and 111 for 5 in the 29th over but a stand of 133 between Buttler and Ravi Bopara, the highest for the sixth wicket at Lord's, had the visitors breathing into a paper bag. In the end, they weren't quite able to emulate India on this ground a dozen years ago but it was a similarly memorable match. And it means we'll get a series decider at Edgbaston on Tuesday, too.

49.6
1
Malinga to Tredwell, 1 run, low full toss this time, clubbed along the ground to mid-on, collected without drama... and that means Sri Lanka win by 7 runs and level the series at 2-2
49.5
0
Malinga to Tredwell, no run, goes full and very wide, adjudged inside the tramlines and that's the match, folks

James Tredwell on strike... a six and a four will do it

49.4
W
Malinga to Buttler, OUT, superb yorker, dug out but only a yard or two off the strip, Malinga fetches it and Buttler is stranded! Buttler is run out after making a quite sensational hundred but it won't be enough for England... Malinga knows his way around squeaky bum time, that's for sure, he fired this in full and then was smart enough to collect and finish the job with Buttler indecisive and Tredwell already alongside him

JC Buttler run out 121 (102m 74b 11x4 4x6) SR: 163.51

49.3
2
Malinga to Buttler, 2 runs, up in the blockhole, Buttler manages to chop it down the ground and they gamble on a second, to keep Buttler facing, the throw wasn't great and Sangakkara had to leap to his right to break the wicket, missed first time and by the time he did, Buttler was home

Out comes James Tredwell but the batsmen crossed, Buttler is on strike

Sri Lanka tour of England and Ireland 2014 News

Barren middle overs

130

Balls England faced without scoring a boundary, between Joe Root's four in the 9th over and Jos Buttler's in the 31st

Slowing down with age...

65.13

Tillakaratne Dilshan's 71 off 109 balls was his second-slowest ODI score of fifty or more

Lord's rises for Sanga

100

Kumar Sangakkara's century is his first triple-figure score at Lord's in international cricket

Strong foundations

172

The 172-run partnership between Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara was Sri Lanka's third-highest for the second wicket in ODIs