ENGLAND v SRI LANKA
npower Test series: England won the three-match series 1-0
First Test Cardiff England 496-5dec beat Sri Lanka 400 & 82 by an innings and 14 runs
Second Test Lord's Sri Lanka 479 & 127-3 drew with England 486 & 335-7dec
Third Test Rose Bowl England 377-8dec drew with Sri Lanka 184 & 334-5
Twenty20 international:
25 June Bristol Sri Lanka 137-1 (17.2 ovs) beat England 136-9 (20 ovs) by nine wkts
NatWest One-Day international series: England won the five-match series 3-2
28 June The Oval England 229-8 (32 ovs) beat Sri Lanka 121 (27 ovs) by 110 runs*
1 July Headingley Sri Lanka 309-5 (50 ovs) beat England 240 (45.5 ovs) by 69 runs
3 July Lord's Sri Lanka 249-4 (48.2 ovs) beat England 246-7 (50 ovs) by six wkts
6 July Trent Bridge England 171-0 (23.5 ovs) bt Sri Lanka 174 (43.4 ovs) by 10 wkts*
9 July Old Trafford England 268-9 (50 ovs) beat Sri Lanka 252 (48.2 ovs) by 16 runs
*Duckworth-Lewis methodENGLAND took four wickets in five balls to kill off a gutsy Sri Lanka comeback and secure a maiden home One-Day series win for captain Alastair Cook.
Jade Dernback took two wickets with the first two balls of the 49th over to end the tourists' challenge and give England a thrilling 3-2 win in a keenly-contested series.
Going into the decider, both sides had enjoyed two comfortable victories each with England winning the first and fourth matches and Sri Lanka winning the middle two.
England began the series at the Oval in good spirits on the back of their 1-0 Test series win. James Anderson took 4-18 as the Sri Lankans slumped to 121 all out in a crushing 110-run defeat.
It was a credit to Tillakaratne Dilshan's side that they came back so impressively on a flatter pitch at Leeds as Mahela Jayawardene racked up 144 runs in the tourists' score of 309.
England were never properly in the chase and ended up being bowled out for 240 with more than four overs left.
Confirmation that momentum had swung in Sri Lanka's favour came in the third match at Lord's.
Despite a Cook century, the visitors prevailed by a comfortable six wicket-margin as the English bowlers toiled, most notably Anderson and Stuart Broad who returned figures of 0-55 and 0-52 from their 10 overs.
However, the pitch at Trent Bridge for the fourth game looked more like one suited to Test cricket with a green tinge on the surface top.
And, having won the toss and elected to field, England soon had Sri Lanka in trouble at 20-4, eventually bowling them out for 174.
Then, stung by harsh criticism in the press for his captaincy tactics, Cook excelled again with the bat, scoring 95 off 75 balls as England strolled to a win by 10 wickets with more than half of their overs left.
Broad had done better on his home ground in Nottingham but his 2-37 could not match Anderson's 3-24 and so the Twenty20 captain made way for spinner Samit Patel on a dusty surface at Old Trafford.
England again won the toss but this time opted to set a target, starting well in reaching 75-0 off the first 10 overs.
A slight collapse to 95-3 seemed to be steadied by Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan's century stand but England struggled in the last 15 overs of their innings and had to be content with 268-9.
No matter, it seemed, as England struck early again with the ball to reduce Sri Lanka to 29-3 and 131-5.
However, a mid-order recovery by Angelo Mathews and Jeevan Mendis gave Sri Lanka the sniff of an unlikely victory.
Once Mendis departed on 233-6, though, the rest of the wickets followed in a flurry and Cook could content himself with a hard-fought series win.
Earlier, as mentioned, England won the Test series but that was another close-run thing.
Rain took so much time out of all three matches that it was a wonder there was any result other than 0-0 in the series. Basically, though, victory for England came down to a crazy session with the bat for the Sri Lankans.
Even at tea on the fifth day with a score of 33-2, Sri Lanka still looked safe despite still having a deficit of 63 runs.
After all, the tourists had two of their most experienced players at the crease in Kumar Sangakkara and Prasanna Jayawardene.
Surely the pair just needed to bat for another hour and the two captains would have shook hands on a draw.
But, perhaps it was the sheer inevitability of the draw which caught the tourists out as they tossed away their wickets with little due care to get all out for 82.
It was their second-lowest Test score against England and fourth-lowest overall.
The Welsh weather accounted for almost two days of play altogether and the English & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) came in for criticism for trying to stage Test cricket in Wales in May.
However, the truth is that, when it came to the two matches in the south of England, the weather was no better.
At Lord's in the second Test, a draw was declared at the start of the final hour with Sri Lanka on 127-3 in a hopeless situation still 215 runs behind.
There was a feeling among some commentators that Andrew Strauss' offer of a handshake was a little premature and another victory could have been scraped.
But, actually, it did look as if the tourists had learned their lesson and Strauss merely recognised that another dramatic collapse was not on the cards.
From a result perspective, the third Test at the Rose Bowl in Southampton - the ground's first-ever Test match - was even more disappointing.
Rain prevented even three innings from being completed as Sri Lanka opted to bat out time on the fifth day in a series, as predicted, dominated by the bat.
It is a fact which makes the anomaly that is Sri Lanka's 82 in Cardiff even more astonishing but credit must go to England for that.
England may not yet be the best in the world, statistically or otherwise, but they seem to be the only side in the world capable of produce a short burst of form which inextricably turns a match in their favour.
Strauss' men have now not lost a Test series since a defeat in the West Indies in March 2009 with seven series wins and a draw since then.
In that time, of course, there have been two Ashes series wins and, just like in Australia, England's top order were in good form against Sri Lanka.
There were centuries in the three matches for Cook twice, Ian Bell twice (once unbeaten), Morgan and a double-hundred for Trott.
Six men - Bell (an amazing 331), Cook (97.5), Trott (66.75), Morgan (56), Matthew Prior (43.33) and Kevin Pietersen (40.5) - averaged above 40 in the series.
India are next up with an even more formidable batting line-up of their own, featuring captain MS Dhoni, vice-captain Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina and, of course, Sachin Tendulkar.
The world champions are not number one in the Test ranking for nothing and they will arrive in England in a buoyant mood after a 1-0 Test series win in the Caribbean.
As well as their batting strength, India also possess the hugely dangerous left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh who will spearhead their array of spin options.
Harbhajan celebrated becoming part of a rather exclusive club by taking his 400th Test wicket while in the West Indies, and there is a feeling that Zaheer could take advantage of an out-of-sorts captain Strauss over here.
For, amid the concern over Pietersen's propensity to get out to left-arm spinners, it emerged Strauss has an even worse record against left-arm seamers.
Meanwhile, on a somewhat separate note, it is a shame that such a talented India side seems so stubborn about the use of television replays to help officials with their decisions.
The International Cricket Council (ICC)-approved umpire decision referral system (UDRS), which has more often than not actually simply confirmed the on-field call to be correct, will not be used in the coming series.
Continued Indian bleating about the reliability of the predicted path of hawk-eye has caused it to be ditched for this contest.
Certainly, though ultimately a fair result is the most important thing, it will feel hard to feel much sympathy for India if they are on the wrong side of a couple of narrowly incorrect decisions by the umps.
Perhaps only then might the sport's current superpower change their ridiculous stance and stop standing in the way of progress.
ENGLAND v INDIA*
Test matches
21-25 Jul First Test at Lord's
29 Jul-2 Aug Second Test at Trent Bridge
10-14 Aug Third Test at Edgbaston
18-22 Aug Fourth Test at the Oval
Twenty20 international
31 Aug at Old Trafford
One-Day Internationals
3 Sep First ODI at Durham
6 Sep Second ODI at the Rose Bowl
9 Sep Third ODI at the Oval
11 Sep Fourth ODI at Lord's
16 Sep Fifth ODI at Cardiff
*England also face Ireland in a one-off One Day Internation in Dublin on 25 Aug
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