Throughout the Test series, Sri Lanka were waiting for their "Big Two" to fire in tandem. It didn't materialise then but Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara got it right in the second ODI as the tourists posted 309-5 from their 50 overs at Headingley.
After a pair of disastrous run outs pegged Sri Lanka back to 45-2, the two senior men took charge en route to a 159-run partnership for the third wicket. Without peppering the boundary, the score ticked along with well-placed ones and twos as Stuart Broad and Jade Dernbach laboured in the middle overs. On a flat wicket, England were powerless to break the partnership.
Jayawardene reached his century off 118 balls shortly after Sangakkara had completed a 63-ball fifty, making a total close to 300 a genuine possibility. Those hopes stuttered when Sangakkara was expertly bamboozled by Graeme Swann to give Craig Kieswetter a simple stumping but were revived during a 59-run batting powerplay as Angelo Mathews stuck a brutal 46* from 30 balls - to go with Jayawardene's 144. Sri Lanka passed the 300 mark in the final over.
Swann was the pick of the bowlers with 2-42 from ten overs but Broad, Dernbach and Tim Bresnan all saw their figures take a pounding, leaving England with a tough chase.
More to follow.
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