Neil Fairbrother hit an unbeaten 67 to guide England to victory over world champions Sri Lanka in Brisbane yesterday and take a clear lead in the three-nation limited overs contest.
The match also saw Sri Lankan offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan again in trouble with the umpires - not for his controversial throwing action but for overstepping. He was no balled in his fourth, fifth and sixth overs.
England, winners by four wickets with three balls to spare, were jubilant at having beaten Australia and Sri Lanka in two days to go top of the three nation standings.
Sri Lanka scored 207 for seven off 50 overs, but England, with Fairbrother at the centre of the innings reaching 208 for six off 49.3 overs.
England made an electric start to the run chase before a brilliant piece of fielding by Muralitharan brought a sudden halt to the free-flowing 59run stand between Alec Stewart and Nick Knight (40).
A third umpire stumping controversy against Mark Alleyne (18) took the game to the wire in the last three overs when Mark Ealham was trapped leg before moments later.
But man-of-the-match Fairbrother pulled it back to a run a ball in the last two overs when he smashed part-time spinner Hashan Tillakaratne over the straight boundary for six. Spinner Robert Croft got the winning runs.
Muralitharan put in a brilliant bowling display and was the pick of the Sri Lankan team, with wicketkeeper Romesh Kaluwitharana, who top scored with 58 and took two quicksilver stumpings and a brilliant catch.
Sri Lanka's innings consisted of three valuable half centuries with Tillakaratne hitting an unbeaten 50 while Kaluwitharana scored 58 and Marvan Ataputtu 51.
England won by four wickets.
Indian cricket chiefs have changed the venues of the two Tests on Pakistan's forthcoming tour which right-wing Hindu activists have threatened to disrupt. The first Test will be in Madras starting on January 28th and the second Test in New Delhi on February 4th.
Under the original itinerary, the first Test was in New Delhi and the second at either Madras or Kanpur. Pakistan are to make their first Test tour of India in more than a decade, though the arch rivals have met at one-day international level.
Australians Shane Warne and Mark Waugh will be spared investigation by the International Cricket Council (ICC) commission looking into match-fixing because their case has already been settled. Warne and Waugh were fined by the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) in 1995 after they admitted taking money from an illegal Indian bookmaker in return for information on weather and pitch conditions.
