England 234-8 (50 overs) bt Sri Lanka 169 (44.3 overs) by 65 runs
| By Paresh Soni |
Owais Shah's 82 and some fine bowling helped England beat Sri Lanka by 65 runs to level the one-day series 1-1. 
The tourists were 61-4 and 142-6 on a slow surface but Shah worked the ball around shrewdly as they posted 234-8.
Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad took two wickets each to reduce Sri Lanka to 38-4 before captain Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan put on 52.
Graeme Swann and Paul Collingwood also struck twice and despite Jehan Mubarak (44), the hosts were dismissed for 169.
It was only England's second one-day international triumph on the island - their previous one was more than 25 years ago - and just the tonic they needed after an abject surrender in Monday's opener at the same venue.
Shah will quite rightly take most of the plaudits after a brilliantly paced knock which rescued his team after the top order had failed dismally to cope with the variations in pace and length the home seamers employed, particularly Farveez Maharoof (3-30).
Alastair Cook wafted leaden-footedly to slip, Ian Bell was lbw shuffling across his crease, while Phil Mustard and Kevin Pietersen - who scratched around for 41 balls for his 12 - spooned catches off ill-judged swipes.
Captain Collingwood was never totally at ease on a sluggish pitch but he passed 1,000 ODI runs for 2007 in helping Shah lay the foundations for the recovery.
They kept the scoreboard ticking against the spinners in a partnership of 78 with a measured approach which was studded with rare boundaries.
Collingwood pulled Dilhara Fernando for England's only six in the 35th over before he was pinned in front trying to work the seamer away on the leg-side and when Ravi Bopara lost his leg-stump to part-time spinner Dilshan, the visitors were still some way short of respectability.
Shah took them there with his fourth one-day fifty and Graeme Swann's support in a stand of 70, and only a brilliant catch from Chamara Silva ended his 92-ball defiance.
It was the best score by an Englishman in a one-day international in Sri Lanka, bettering Graham Gooch's 74 in that 1982 success.
And its importance was magnified when Sidebottom and Broad extracted bounce and movement from a pitch that quickened significantly in the evening.
Upul Tharanga edged Sidebottom to Cook at second slip and Sanath Jayasuriya - playing in his 400th ODI - cracked the left-armer to Bell at cover.
Kumar Sangakkara was dropped twice by Cook at slip and Mustard before the keeper redeemed himself with a superb catch, while Silva was snapped up at backward point when a Broad delivery reared up.
England were rampant but their fires were doused by Dilshan's aggression and the composed class of Jayawardene.
The duo seized on errors in line and length from Broad and James Anderson to pick up a flurry of boundaries as their fifty partnership came up in 44 balls.
However, Swann's third ball, a vicious off-spinner, ripped through Dilshan's defences and Collingwood saw his opposite number flip him straight to mid-wicket to land two hammer blows.
The same duo worked their way through the tail and although Mubarak struck several lusty blows and Fernando (20) made his highest one-day score, nothing could take the shine off Shah and England's day.
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