With a weary display of batting England last night squandered a wonderful opportunity to move up to fourth in the one-day international rankings ahead of all the Asian sides and behind only Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

Chasing a challenging but far from impossible target of 212 to win the fifth and final ODI in Colombo, England - mesmerised by some clever changes of pace from Dilhara Fernando - capitulated to 104 all out inside 30 overs. Nobody could reach 30 and only some late but otherwise irrelevant resistance from Ravi Bopara and Monty Panesar hoisted the score into three figures.

Such a catastrophic failure was a combination of mental fatigue on the part of some players who have been on the road for months and an inability to cope with searching bowling under lights on another tricky pitch for batting.

Fernando was the somewhat startled beneficiary as Sri Lanka fought desperately to prevent themselves going down to a fourth successive defeat on home soil for the first time.

Armed with devilish bounce and a lethal slower delivery, Fernando has caused England problems before, but never to this extent. In the space of seven overs he claimed six wickets and reduced England from the comfort of 32 for one to the chaos of 82 for eight.

In the midst of the carnage, Chaminda Vaas chipped in with the vital wicket of Kevin Pietersen, attempting something extravagant against a full-length ball zeroing in on leg stump. Pietersen was joint top-scorer alongside Alastair Cook with 28.

The result means that England stay seventh in the rankings, although by taking the series 3-2 they have closed the gap with Pakistan and India to one point. Other results might yet see them move up the table, but whatever happens, it is clear that England have taken great strides in one-day cricket by beating India 4-3 and Sri Lanka 3-2.

“This result won’t take the gloss off what has been an exceptional performance,” said Paul Collingwood, the England captain.

Whether 50-over cricket has been much advanced by this series is less certain. Some awkward surfaces have left the strokemakers of both sides struggling for fluency. The highest score by anyone was 82 in Dambulla by Owais Shah, out to a snorter yesterday, and just eight sixes were hit in the five matches. Many onlookers whose appetites had been whetted by the World Twenty20 must have found the spectacle tortuous and only England’s two-wicket victory in the third match set pulses racing.

England would have been delighted to have restricted Sri Lanka to under 215 for the fourth time in a row. Both camps probably expected England to win from there, but Peter Moores’s team, cautiously though they started, were never able to establish a partnership (neither, really, were Sri Lanka).

Once Ian Bell had chipped Fernando’s slower ball to mid-on – to complete a miserable series for a man who could do no wrong against India - the flood-gates opened. Cook was smartly held by Kumar Sangakkara, who had an excellent day behind the stumps, and moments later Collingwood was pinned lbw in his crease to finish the series on a very quiet note.

A collision with Sanath Jayas-uriya in the field had exacerbated Collingwood’s shoulder problem and had earlier prevented him bowling, although Shah and Bopara filled in well.

If the England batsmen return home a chastened group, the bowlers certainly do not. They gave another exemplary performance in stifling heat and appeared to have set up the game for England. Sri Lanka, for the third time in four games, were all out inside 50 overs.

Ryan Sidebottom, cricket’s second-most famous Hair, fought off cramp to turn in another immaculate performance after conceding 10 runs in his first over to finish with figures of two for 41 - his victims included Mahela Jayawardene for a second successive duck - while Stuart Broad picked up a wicket in each of his last three overs.

Sidebottom - named man of the series - was unarguably England’s star bowler and, given his consistency at home in the summer, must be guaranteed a place in the Test XI when the sides resume battle in December. His left-arm angles give crucial variety to the attack and for accuracy there is simply nobody to match him.

Statistically, James Anderson’s series was nothing special but yesterday he again struck a crucial blow by removing Jayas-uriya, who was clearly intent on hitting himself out of his slump in form, twice clearing the ropes, but Anderson was to have the last laugh by once more duping him with a slower ball.

When Dilruwan Perera and Jayawardene fell in the same over to Sidebottom, Sri Lanka were struggling at 74 for three but the fourth-wicket partnership between Sangakkara and Chamara Silva proved crucial.

It was not so much the 34 runs they added as the time they took to regroup: they held England at bay for nine overs and although Sangakkara then unexpectedly fell to Shah, Silva had the wherewithal to bat on in conventional fashion. Having scored a half-century in the previous encounter, he was probably more conscious than most that this was not the sort of pitch on which to take risks. The value of his 73 from 109 balls is clear from the fact that the next highest score in the game was Perera’s equally careful 30.

If the low scoring was one feature of this series, another was the dominance of the fast bowlers. Had Murali played, of course, it might well have been a different story but England will nevertheless have taken note of the assistance provided to the seamers.

The question now is whether their first-choice spinner is Monty Panesar – who bowled tidily but unexpectionally yesterday in his first appearance of the series – or Graeme Swann, whose batting will be all the more necessary in the absence of Andrew Flintoff.

England must hope that when the teams next meet in December, Sri Lanka’s morale has taken a battering in Australia, where they are due to play two Tests next month.