Collingwood inspires England

Collingwood was in sublime touch for England

England 258-9 (50 overs) beat Sri Lanka 163 (43.4 overs) by 95 runs

Match scorecard

Paul Collingwood scored a timely maiden international century to steer England to a second consecutive victory over Sri Lanka at the Waca.

The Durham all-rounder rescued England from a dire 122 for six and, with Craig White (48), put on a seventh-wicket record for England in a one-day international.

VB Series table

England
P4 W2 L2 BP1 Pts12 Run rate 0.11

Australia
P2 W2 L0 BP1 Pts11 Run rate 1.20

Sri Lanka
P2 W0 L2 BP1 Pts1
Run rate -1.38

The Sri Lankans, in stark contrast, were out of sorts at the crease, rarely taking up the run chase and eventually being reduced to 163 with five overs remaining.

England picked up a bonus point as a result of the winning margin.

Pictures from Perth

Andy Caddick was the pick of the bowlers for England, taking three wickets for 30 before limping off with a minor ankle injury.

James Anderson and Steve Harmison, along with Collingwood, effectively booked their World Cup places with some impressive bowling.

Despite hitting two sixes during his innings, Collingwood's heroics were built on quick singles and intelligent running with White.

Sri Lanka's often lacklustre fielders were left ruing a major missed opportunity, though, when Thilan Samaraweera dropped Collingwood on 11.

Vaas was the pick of the Sri Lankan bowlers

England started brightly through openers Nick Knight and Marcus Trescothick, but both men returned to the pavilion in the fifth over after mistiming pull shots off Chaminda Vaas.

Vaas, the leading Sri Lankan bowler with three for 36, then removed Ronnie Irani after trapping him lbw in the ninth over.

He was ably assisted by Prabath Nissanka's brace and, when Dilhara Fernando sent Ian Blackwell packing, England looked set for a dismal total.

But Collingwood showed admirable patience, preferring to ride the remainder of Vaas' overs before steadily picking singles off the Sri Lankan attack.

Wayward strikes

His innings was eventually ended off the final ball.

In response, Caddick, after conceding 13 runs with his opening over, took the wickets of Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu and Jehan Mubarak in six overs all courtesy of catches - all three losing out to wayward strikes.

From there, Sri Lanka steadily fell apart with some uninspiring cricket, seemingly only going for a single bonus point for 207 rather than the win.

In the end that fell foul as Anderson, Ian Blackwell and Harmison took two wickets each, Harmison removing the middle stump of Pulsathi Gunaratne for the win.

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England: N Hussain (capt), NV Knight, ME Trescothick, RC Irani, ID Blackwell, C White, AJ Stewart (wkt), AR Caddick, PD Collingwood, SJ Harmison, JM Anderson.

Sri Lanka: S Jayasuriya (capt), M Atapattu, T Samaraweera, M Jayawardene, K Sangakkara, R Arnold, J Mubarak, C Vaas, P Gunaratne, P Nissanka, D Fernando.