Sri Lanka Captain Kumar Sangakkara's winning runs helped his team to victory over England in the fourth one day international; they are now 3-1 up in the seven match series. Sri Lanka Captain's 86 runs were supported by a solid 44 runs by Mahela Jayarwardene and impressive all-rounder Angelo Mathews, whose unbeaten half century of 51 runs ensured that Sri Lanka secured victory.

James Taylor was the pick of the pick of the English batsmen; he replaced suspended Captain Alastair Cook, who was on a one match ban for a slow over rate. Taylor's 90 runs, in his first one day international in 15 months, gave England an excellent chance in this match, but his dismissal contributed for England to be bowled out for 265.

There seemed to be a lack of penetration from the English bowlers, thus meaning that the total that they were defending never looked in doubt of being reached by Sri Lanka. The pitch in Colombo was slow; it was swinging a lot, but England opted to change their attack from the last ODI, excluding spinner James Treadwell; they might have had better luck had Treadwell played, but nothing was to be taken away from the brilliant performance of Sri Lanka skipper Sangakkara, who managed to score more runs than the whole of the England batsmen put together. Sangakkara's team mates, Mathews and Thirrimane, were going through the motions, and the run rate rapidly accelerated to seven runs an over.

England were on the cusp of defeat when James Taylor came to the crease and the ship was steadied alongside Eoin Morgan, who was deputising for the suspended Captain and managed an excellent 62 runs from 47 deliveries. This was only Taylor's third ODI, and he took to it like a duck to water as he wasted no time in replacing Captain Alastair Cook at number one in the batting order.

His batting performance showed maturity and helped his team to get out of a moment of crisis; Taylor looked as if he would be heading towards a century.

The ODI is preparing the teams for the World Cup, which will begin in February 2015.