England sent spinning

Michael Atherton's dismissal was questionable

First Test, Galle - Sri Lanka beat England by an innings and 28 runs.

Sri Lanka: 1st inns 470-5 dec
England: 1st inns: 253; 2nd inns: 189

Click here for scorecard

England slumped to a heavy defeat in the first Test, on a final day which was one to forget for Nasser Hussain's team.

It ended in a hefty defeat - their first for eight Test matches.

While they were always up against it, England's chances of saving the game were undermined by yet more below-par umpiring.

Craig White and Robert Croft were victims of dubious decisions, adding to those of which accounted for Nasser Hussain and Marcus Trescothick on Sunday.

But it was the loss of Michael Atherton in the final day's opening overs that did so much to undermine England.

Fletcher and Hussain watch their side's demise

England needed Atherton to survive for much of the day if they were to avoid defeat.

He had already batted for four hours, but his stay in the middle was to last only a further few minutes.

To the day's 13th delivery, bowled by Chaminda Vaas, Atherton pushed forward and edged low towards Kumar Sangakkara.

The Sri Lankan wicketkeeper plunged forward to scoop up the ball and Indian official AV Jayaprakash ruled it out without consulting the third umpire.

Replays showed the ball hitting the ground before thudding into the blameless Sangakkara's gloves.

White was given out lbw despite being well forward and well outside off stump.

Croft was also adjudged leg before despite an inside edge on to his pad.

All that means half England's second innings wickets were, at the very least, questionable.

Yet for all that Sri Lanka thoroughly deserved their victory. They would surely have achieved it no matter the decisions that went their way.

Umpires Peter Manuel and AV Jayaprakash

The Galle surface offered increasing turn and as Vaas provided intelligent seam support, England lost their remaining eight wickets for 68 runs.

The final five disappeared in 10.3 overs after lunch.

After Atherton's demise Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe dropped anchor for more than an hour.

It was never easy, but there did appear to be one minor victory for the tourists.

Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya removed Muttiah Muralitharan and replaced him with Kumar Dharmasena, who had failed to threaten during the match.

But the off spinner struck almost at once, pinning Thorpe on the back foot to take his first wicket of the Test.

Stewart was the only batsman to look at ease and a single off the recalled Muralitharan took him to 7,000 runs in Test cricket, the seventh Englishman to reach the landmark.

In contrast Hick never looked comfortable, taking 27 balls to get off the mark.

Jayasuriya ended a terrible Test for the batsman 15 minutes before lunch when Hick edged to Jayawardene at slip via the keepers' gloves.

White was fortunate to survive an appeal for a bat/pad catch off Muralitharan.

But from the next ball he was given out lbw despite playing a shot on the front foot and being well outside the line of off stump.

Caddick is bowled round his legs

England received some belated good fortune thanks to another umpiring misjudgement.

Stewart should have been given out to a catch close to the wicket, but the umpire believed the ball had come off the fielders helmet.

But in the next over Caddick was bowled round his legs by Jayasuriya as the match headed towards an inevitable outcome.

Muralitharan trapped Giles on the back foot, before Croft fell to Jayasuriya.

He was the eighth wicket of the match for the Sri Lankan captain, who finished with Test best figures of eight for 94.

Muralitharan (4-66) wrapped up Sri Lanka's third successive victory over England, easily defeating Gough's heave to complete a galling day for England.

Before the start of the day's play both teams observed two minutes' silence in memory of Sir Donald Bradman, who died in Australia on Sunday.