Alastair Cook leads from front as England win thriller

That they did it by beating the World Cup finalists 3-2 in a five-match series is encouraging and with Alastair Cook as captain and opening bat astonishing. That it went to the final balls even more impressive as they held their nerve against a very good team, but England have not become a dominant one-day force over five matches. Twice they were thrashed and their first two victories were in conditions tailor-made for the seam attack, but yesterday was a wicket at Old Trafford that should have benefited the visitors.

So how did England win?

A mixture of reasons, the most important being Sri Lanka were poor with the ball for the first 35 overs of England's innings, but maybe England forced that with a stupendous opening partnership between Cook and Craig Kieswetter in which they rattled along at eight an over.

It was brilliant batting as they picked off a wayward Lasith Malinga and pierced the field with a succession of well-struck attacking shots. They were clinical in their shot selection. Where Kieswetter used to step down the wicket to the leg-side and swish wildly over extra-cover, he stepped neatly down the pitch but towards the off-side and calmly lifted the ball over mid-on. It was controlled and thoughtful, as was Cook's captaincy.

As the series has developed he has shown a greater range of shot than any thought he possessed. Yesterday was his first opportunity to showcase his shrewdness and it started in the 13th over when he called the first power play. It did not work as he, Kieswetter and Kevin Pietersen were all dismissed, but the intention was correct.

Still, Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan ignored the mini-collapse and batted beautifully. Both scored near a run -a-ball and took England past 200 with over 15 overs remaining. A score in excess of 300 was possible but Suraj Randiv exerted a stranglehold with well-flighted off-spin that turned and bounced. His five wickets brought the run-scoring to a standstill and with Malinga bowling toe-crushing yorkers to complete the innings the final total was only 268.

Sri Lanka must have felt they had a chance but the England dressing room would have been delighted that Randiv had been so influential as Graeme Swann is a much superior spinner and Samit Patel was in the side instead of Stuart Broad.

In such conditions the old dressing room adage is to have the runs on the board. The modern plan when spin is likely to be difficult to attack is to go hard at the opening overs and get ahead of the run rate so the spinners can be worked around. It is a sound plan but can result in wickets falling. Tim Bresnan was excellent from the Statham End. He dismissed both openers in his first two overs and would have had Mahela Jayawardene as well but Jade Dernbach dropped a simple catch at long leg. Then - and later when Kumar Sangakkara was dismissed - England would have believed they had the match won with the required run-rate hovering around eight an over but Sri Lanka play so much one-day cricket that they have experienced similar situations frequently.

Angelo Mathews and Jeevan Mendis were wonderful picking off singles and accelerating smartly in the final power play. Indeed they should have won the match, but in the 47th over Mendis was caught in the deep playing an unnecessary slog.

When Randiv was run out next ball the game seemed lost but Malinga smashed his first ball for six and only 17 were needed off 12 deliveries.

Sri Lanka with Mathews facing were favourites but Jade Dernbach fooled the batsman with a cunning slower ball and then next up ripped a quick one past Dhammika Prasad and the celebrations began for England and for Cook.