Sangakkara resists but England take control

The chalk-and-cheese nature of England and Sri Lanka's cricketers once again came to the fore in the fourth ODI at Trent Bridge, as James Anderson and his seam-bowling team-mates took advantage of a grassy pitch and damp conditions to restrict Sri Lanka's strokemakers to 174 all out. At 20 for 4 after 8.3 overs, however, their predicament could have been much, much worse, but for the efforts of Kumar Sangakkara, who produced his second command performance of the week to anchor the innings with 75 from 104 balls.

Following on from his majestic speech to the MCC at Lord's on Monday, Sangakkara showed that his attack on the "cronies" who are ruining the game in his country had not distracted him from his principal role of scoring runs to win cricket matches. He alone showed the necessary application, firstly to survive as he reached an 80-ball half-century, and then to thrive as he attacked in the batting Powerplay with only the No. 11 Suranga Lakmal for company. He was last man out in the 44th over, caught off a leading edge to give Jade Dernbach his best figures of 3 for 38.

Despite Sangakkara's efforts, England were more than happy with their mid-match position. They are at their happiest when the weather is dank and unsettled, as they proved with victory at The Oval last Tuesday; Sri Lanka prefer to have the sun on their backs, and claimed the series lead after two days of glorious weather at Headingley and Lord's over the weekend. Today, however, a rain-delayed toss greeted the teams in Nottingham, and when it did finally take place at 2.20pm, Alastair Cook was very happy to bowl first with an unchanged attack, and little wonder.

In that Oval contest, Sri Lanka had collapsed to 15 for 4 and 121 all out, and a similar denouement looked to be on the cards when Anderson extracted Tillakaratne Dilshan for a duck in the first over of the day. A full-length delivery swung just a fraction to graze the edge of the bat, and was easily pouched by Craig Kieswetter behind the stumps. Three overs later, Tim Bresnan provided a variation on the same theme to dislodge Sri Lanka's form batsman, Mahela Jayawardene, for 9 - the ball nibbled off the seam and took the splice of a poorly-judged push outside off.

Within five deliveries, Anderson had struck again, as Dinesh Chandimal - the centurion at Lord's - was pinned lbw for a duck by a full-length inducker, as if Cook's invocation of the cricketing gods after that match had paid dividends. And Anderson soon made it three in five overs, as Thilina Kandamby continued his poor series with a limp fence to second slip.

Stuart Broad's introduction to the attack started inauspiciously when he was edged second-ball through the vacant third slip for four, before being launched over the covers for a second boundary in five balls for Randiv. His figures were starting to suffer when Randiv cracked him through the covers in his third over to move along to 18 from 25 balls, but in the same over, he feathered a thin edge down the legside, to claim his first wicket of the series, and leave Sri Lanka's hopes very much in Sangakkara's hands.

Angelo Mathews did his best to provide solid support in a 72-run stand for the sixth wicket, as he proved his Chandimal-assisting go-slow at Lord's had been a strict exception to his usual free-flowing style. He had pushed along to 39 from 49 balls, with one four and a pair of big sixes down the ground, when Bresnan extracted him with a superb finger-tipped catch, as he dived forward in his followthrough to scoop a leading edge.

Jeevan Mendis hung around to assist Sangakkara for a further 26-run stand, before Broad doubled his tally with a lifter that flew through to Kieswetter, before Dernbach's variations proved the perfect antidote to Sri Lanka's stand-and-deliver. Nuwan Kulasekara and Lasith Malinga fell in the same over to full and straight deliveries, before Sangakkara's departure rounded off the innings.