Asgiriya Stadium (final day of five): Sri Lanka beat England by 88 runs The new ball did it in the end. Not until it came, nine overs after tea, did Muttiah Muralitharan take a wicket after 32 fruitless overs. Despite being 90 for five, 11 overs before lunch, England had got to within an hour of saving a memorable match with four wickets in hand when the Sri Lanka spinner bowled both the would-be saviours, Ian Bell and Matt Prior, in the space of three balls.

There was more drama to come as Sri Lanka closed on a victory that was completed when Lasith Malinga yorked an incapacitated Matthew Hoggard with six full overs and no more than 20 minutes of playable light left.

Ryan Sidebottom, who had played so staunchly in the first innings, was given out leg-before off the inside edge of his bat by Asad Rauf, an unfortunate error in a match generally very well umpired by Rauf and Alim Dar, his more experienced colleague.

England lost honourably enough to have a chance in the second and third Tests, but this may prove to have been their best hope of winning, one that was not so much squandered by themselves as squeezed away from them by the first four batsmen in the home team’s second innings, helped greatly by Hoggard’s back injury.

Sri Lanka have more truly outstanding players than there are in Michael Vaughan’s team and in this, Sanath Jayasuriya’s last Test, all their senior men were at their best at some time. It was an exceptional victory, achieved from 42 for five on the first morning and, despite their partial recovery, a dangerously low first-innings total of 188.

In Adelaide a year ago to this day, England lost a momentous match that they could have won and should have drawn. Yesterday’s setback, by contrast, was nearly heroic. There is something peculiarly romantic about match-saving partnerships and spirit, skill and gumption were the features of the two partnerships that Bell - who, like Kumar Sangakkara, played two outstanding innings at No 3 - shared first with Ravi Bopara and then, for 44 tense overs, with Prior.

The biggest blow of the morning came early, when Vaughan, who had played one of his finest innings to save the match here four years ago, was caught behind off Chaminda Vaas in the fifth over, pushing forward to a ball of perfect length angled across him. Vaas disposed of James Anderson, the nightwatchman, soon afterwards, bowled by a beauty that left him, again off the ideal length, a lesson that Anderson the bowler would do well to learn.

Kevin Pietersen began impressively, in the truest sense, opening his account with a crunching straight drive and hitting a further three boundaries before Dilhara Fernando hit his off stump halfway up with an almost unplayable off cutter that Pietersen could have kept out if only he had been right forward. Instead, he was driving from the crease as, brought up on hard, true pitches where the ball comes on quickly and the bounce can be trusted, he prefers to do. But Fernando is a clever and versatile bowler, as he proceeded to prove again by tempting Paul Collingwood to drive a slightly slower ball to short extra cover.

Ninety for five was too bad to be true for England. Bell was already embarked on a highly accomplished innings that was to last 77 overs, during which he was beaten no more than half a dozen times. No rash forays this time, but the same perfect timing and placement that had marked the large part of his first innings.

Bopara played his natural game and looked thoroughly at ease, stroking seven fours either side of lunch of which only the first, in the air between the two Jayawardenas, was streaky. He was a little unlucky, four overs into the afternoon session, to be given out playing forward and outside a ball from Jayasuriya that he presumably expected to turn more than it did.

For the next 2½ hours, Bell and Prior nobly held the fort, coming so close to joining the fabled ranks of Bailey and Watson, Atherton and Russell and a few more. Prior, who has shared in five stands of a hundred or more in his eight Tests, emphasised his batting credentials in a match in which he also kept wicket well, fending off 146 balls and hitting eight fours before going back to a Muralitharan doosra that hurried on to bowl him. Off the second ball of the spinner’s next over, Bell, to his chagrin, was beaten pushing forward on the outside by an off break that turned less than he had expected.

Hoggard was handicapped by an injury that seems unlikely to have recovered sufficiently for him to play in either the Colombo Test, starting on Sunday, or the one that follows five days later in Galle. For the time being, England officials are saying only that his injury will be monitored, but Vaughan said that he is “doubtful” for a second Test in which his place will go to one of Stuart Broad, Stephen Harmison or, less likely, Graeme Swann.

- One man on holiday supporting England was taken to hospital with a gash to his chest and three others needed medical attention for cuts and bruises when a corrugated iron roof cover collapsed in strong winds during the morning session of the final day of the first Test yesterday (Christopher Martin-Jenkins writes). Asgiriya is a beautiful ground, but by the standards of modern sports stadiums it is old and tatty. A new ground near Kandy in an area more or less guaranteed to have a dry season has been planned for some time but has foundered through lack of funds. Given the profits made from the World Cup in April, however, it is surprising that Sri Lanka Cricket has not finished the job.