Series Lost as Rain is the Winner

Mid-day sunshine promised better prospects of play than on Friday when heavy overnight rain left certain areas of the outfield caked in mud and prevented a ball being bowled in the second game.

But with the monsoon season refusing to depart the island, another huge storm blew in an hour before the scheduled 2.30pm start time.

The hot sun before the thunder and lightning that ensued had encouraged the tourists to name their side, making a solitary change to their line-up as they sought to level the one-day series at the Premadasa Stadium.

James Kirtley replaced the injured James Anderson, who damaged his ankle playing squash earlier this week when the weather washed out training.

Anderson, 21, spent the warm-up watching his team-mates with his ankle heavily strapped.

Then a deluge that lasted two hours left the covered area in the middle spilling water on to the outfield and huge pools formed around the boundary edges.

Amazingly, captain Michael Vaughan and his opposite number Marvan Atapattu were in favour of allowing the ground staff as much time as possible to soak up the ground - a seemingly futile exercise given that the water in the canal, behind one of the stands, was at a higher level than the playing area.

With the ground constructed in the 1990s on a former marsh. it is not a fast-drying area anyway - and the super-moppers could simply not reduce the volume quickly enough.

Play had to begin before 7.30pm to constitute a contest - with a minimum of 25 overs per side - but the officials conceded defeat at 5.15pm.

Both sides were keen to get on the field for different reasons.

England wanted to level the series and put the embarrassing 10-wicket Dambulla defeat behind them, while the Sri Lankans' television rights deal is on a no-play no-pay basis.

Although there are no refunds on tickets for the 25,000 sell-out crowd, Sri Lanka Cricket have now missed out on two hefty TV fees this week.

The rain also meant that Sanath Jayasuriya will have to wait to become his country's most-capped one-day international player - he currently shares the record of 308 appearances with Aravinda de Silva.

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