England v Sri Lanka 5th ODI

By Jonathan Agnew BBC Sport cricket correspondent at Headingley

The very sad news of Fred Trueman's death cast a pall over Headingley.

Jayasuriya and Tharanga mugged the bowlers safe in the knowledge that their confidence was battered

Without equal as England's finest fast bowler, Fred was a wonderful character whose analysis, humour and company on Test Match Special I will never forget.

It was entirely fitting that England should have been playing on his home ground on the day he died.

It gave everyone here the first opportunity to show their respect and admiration for a life that was always lived to the full.

It was also apt that England's bowling should be so hopelessly inadequate.

Had he been watching, the great man would no doubt have observed: "I just don't know what's going off out there!" and his pipe would billow smoke like an autumn bonfire.

All that one can say about England's bowling is that, in terms of direction, it was not the worst performance of this series.

Set the challenging target of 322 to win, openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga deliberately mugged the bowlers safe in the knowledge that their confidence was already battered from the previous encounters.

As they raced to Sri Lanka's highest partnership in one-day international cricket, the runs came at a staggering rate.

England finished this series in disarray

The hundred came up after only eight overs. At the 10-over mark, Sri Lanka were 133-0!

Andrew Strauss - who we are expecting to be named as England's acting test captain in Andrew Flintoff's absence on Tuesday - duly tossed the ball from bowler to bowler, but no one was able to stem the flow of runs.

Only Jamie Dalrymple emerged relatively unscathed - as has been the case throughout the series.

While England finish this series in disarray, this tour has developed into a triumph for Sri Lanka.

What a different story it would probably have been had they lost the first Test at Lord's where, instead, they hung on for a famous draw.

They took great confidence from that achievement and although they lost the second, Muttiah Muralitharan bowled them to a series-levelling victory at Trent Bridge.

The biggest success for Sri Lanka has been the captaincy.

Pressed into action because of injury to Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene's leadership has visibly blossomed and should return home to a hero's welcome.

It would be a bold - and I suggest a foolish move - to demote him on Atapattu's return.