The size of the defeat took some of the sheen off England's series victory and left them seventh in the ODI rankings. A win would have propelled them into fourth place.

Overall though they have made significant progress during the last two months when the focus has been solely on the shorter game.

Phil Mustard is worth having another look at despite a best score of 28. It was a chastening experience for him under the lights against Sri Lanka’s accomplished seam attack, but there were hints of the damage he could do on flatter pitches.

This certainly was not one of them and it was superbly exploited by Dilhara Fernando and Chaminda Vaas. Fernando's clever slower ball has had batsmen guessing throughout the series and it was responsible for three of his six wickets.

Attention now switches to December's Test series. England have a month off while Sri Lanka face a severe examination in a two match series in Australia.

The England selectors name their squad on Friday with Mark Ramprakash one of the players under consideration after another superb county season. It would be a backward move, though, to pick him at the age of 38 and it is likely the selectors will ultimately resist recalling him five years after his last Test appearance.

Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar are certain to fill the spinners' berths but two other areas will be under scrutiny, the wicket-keeping position and the composition of the pace attack.

Steve Harmison must prove he is fit to return. Even if he is, there must be a temptation to stick with the bowlers who have done so well here in the last fortnight. Matthew Hoggard will return to supplement them.

Matt Prior is the best batsmen of the available keepers and with some reservations he is worth persevering with for now. There are plenty of candidates for his place but no outstanding one.

When they won in Australia in February they were not quite sure how they managed it, and it was followed by a wretched showing in the World Cup. Victory against India was a positive step, but it was achieved in familiar conditions.

To triumph in Sri Lanka, albeit against a team without Muttiah Muralitharan, hints at a promising future for this emerging, inexperienced team.

After years of underachievement, England appear to be developing a one-day team that is capable of executing pre-game plans on a more consistent basis. Accurate, testing bowling and aggressive fielding set up their most comfortable victory of the series.

England were ahead of the game throughout and they never looked like conceding control, even during the century partnership for the fourth wicket between Kumar Sangakkara and Chamara Silva. So much damage had been done in the opening overs that the Sri Lanka pair were limited to re-building. They were not in a position to change the tempo of the match.

England could have cursed their luck after losing the toss again on a roasting hot afternoon. Instead, their new ball attack had Sri Lanka fretting. Ryan Sidebottom further enhanced his reputation with a superb spell while James Anderson produced his most purposeful bowling of the series.

Sri Lanka’s total looked thin at the halfway stage. Without being a ‘belter’, it was a reasonable pitch and England eased to their victory.

Alastair Cook’s place has been under threat after a series of unconvincing displays. He has responded by working harder at his game - he knew he was struggling. He still does not look like an opener for all conditions, but his innings will do a lot for his confidence. Towards the end, he was knocking the ball around for singles like an old hand.

It helped that Kevin Pietersen was in tow. Freed from the shackles of the sluggish Dambulla pitch and the injured Farveez Maharoof, Pietersen was much like his usual self.

There was no let up from Sri Lanka in England last year. It will be interesting to see if England follow suit.

Not many survive from the England team to carry the memory of the merciless thumping they suffered at Headingley in the final game of the five match series – only Cook and Ian Bell.

Saturday’s final match will reveal if England are developing a ruthless streak to go alongside their renewed enthusiasm for the one-day game.

Low and slow scoring have their place if the two teams involved are evenly matched and compete remorselessly for control.

The game finished at quarter past eleven with a dropped catch yielding two runs and two batsmen in residence who did not know the game was over. Unsurprisingly, no one in a packed crowd left early.

The confusion at the end - even umpire Rudi Koertzen was uncertain - was down to a puzzling recalculation of England’s target under the Duckworth/Lewis method.

Sri Lanka were effectively docked a run, despite beginning their innings believing they had fifty overs in which to bat. Only in cricket…

The most relieved man on the ground was Owais Shah. His loose stroke against Sanath Jayasuriya when England were regaining control after an early collapse was in inexplicable contrast to the maturity of his innings in the second game.

They were others though who did keep their nerve. Stuart Broad proved his heroics at Old Trafford against India were not a fluke with a composed cameo, while Graeme Swann bowled and batted like a player already confident in his new surroundings. A place in the Test squad is beckoning.

The importance of winning the toss, a factor in the outcome of the first two matches, was negated by the weather.

Three rain breaks effectively turned the match into a night/night international - the lights were on by the 15th over of Sri Lanka’s innings.

Sri Lanka’s coach, the Australian Trevor Bayliss, will not be impressed. He has expressed surprise that all five matches in this series are day/night games.

He would prefer Sri Lanka to make the most of home advantage by baking England in the sun all day.

Plenty went England’s way in the field and they should have won with more comfort having restricted Sri Lanka’s batsmen. Mahela Jayawardene smacked a long hop straight to Paul Collingwood, Chamara Silva was caught via bottom edge and boot and Kumar Sangakkara, charitably, gave himself out caught behind when no one appealed.

England have had plenty of wicket-keepers who were not adverse to appealing when the batsman had not hit the ball. Phil Mustard is trying to start a new trend although ‘can’t detect nicks’ is not the most flattering thing to have on your wicket-keeping CV.

The game mirrored Monday’s first match. This time it was England who dug out a competitive total and then applied pressure under the lights.

Paul Collingwood refused, rightly, to attribute to England’s defeat in the opening match to batting second - it never pays to make excuses - but there is clearly some benefit to winning the toss. The key is to make use of it.

Coming in at 61-4 when an out-of-sorts Kevin Pietersen was dismissed for 12, Shah mixed patience, stamina and unorthodoxy to produce one of his most disciplined international innings. He is making a strong case to be included in England’s Test team for the matches here in Sri Lanka in December .

After struggling to win the approval of Duncan Fletcher, he is beginning to flourish under the new regime. With Andrew Strauss’ place in doubt, Shah is a viable option at number six for the first Test. Michael Vaughan could move up to open with Ian Bell shifting back to number three.

The matches in Dambulla have been tough on the batsmen. Slow pitches and big boundaries have provided a rigorous challenge after all the slogging in South Africa.

Sri Lanka’s bowling in the first 20 overs was exemplary. No wides were bowled, no width was given. England, more inclined to use the short ball, were just as good with Ryan Sidebottom continuing his impressive year.

Sri Lanka only threatened once, when Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan were together. The difference was that England had a frontline spinner and Graeme Swann exploited the conditions adeptly. His third ball, which spun and hit the top of Dilshan’s off stump, was the sort slow bowlers fantasise about delivering.

After a victory, there is always a temptation to keep an unchanged side. But there is a still case to be made for finding a place for Monty Panesar. Two front-line spinners could make the difference if the toss is lost.

Even without the injured Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka are an accomplished side, especially in their own country.

They have made few changes since reaching the World Cup final and England’s inexperienced team will need to adapt quickly to avoid the sort of embarrassment they suffered at home against the same side last year.

After the frantic World Twenty20 carnival in South Africa the return to one-day internationals seemed rather prosaic, especially on sluggish pitch which made big shot-making tricky. Even Sanath Jayasuriya was inhibited at the start.

Debutant Phil Mustard, encouraged to play in his usual aggressive style, succeeded for a while but his dismissal, a lofted toe-ender to mid-off, illustrated the difficulty of hitting over the top consistently.

Sri Lanka are so adept in their own country. Their batting was unspectacular but they ensured they had enough to defend by not being too greedy.

So what do England do from here? They could play the same line-up and hope they perform better next time. The bolder option is to play two spinners and leave out a batsman. If they do that, then one of Alastair Cook, Owais Shah or Ravi Bopara will have to be jettisoned.

Cook, despite making 46, was unconvincing. It took him 80 balls. He is a batsman capable of playing 100 Tests, but he is yet to come to terms with the one-day game. One solution is to open with Ian Bell and bat Bopara at three.

In Andrew Flintoff’s absence it is difficult for England to balance their line-up. They are will either be short of bowling or batting options. Here Monty Panesar was sacrificed. With England unwilling to play two spinners, Graeme Swann’s all-round game was preferred.

If Panesar is to progress, clearly he has to play and he must have been frustrated to see Swann’s first ball turn and bounce.

England’s three trips to the Dambulla jungle have produced scores of 143, 88 and 150. Only the monkeys and the mosquitoes will keep Sri Lanka awake at night before the next match on Thursday.