KANDY, Dec 11 (AFP): Joe Root scored an unbeaten century and James Taylor notched an inspired 68 as England beat Sri Lanka by five wickets in the fifth one-day international in Kandy Thursday.
England's win keeps their chances alive in the seven-match series, with the visitors now trailing 2-3 against Sri Lanka with two matches still to play.
Root's 104 not out laid the foundation for England's win, and earned him man of the match.
"It was nice to be able to finish off an innings", Root said while showering praise on Taylor. "It was great to see him coming and doing that."
Taylor was omitted for the first three games, and has been determined to prove the selectors wrong ever since, scoring 90 in the last game.
His robust knock of 68 this time around included five fours and a six.
Sri Lanka opened with two spinners when England began the chase on Thursday, after rain forced the visitors to abandon starting their innings on Wednesday night.
"Our spinners were disappointing, a pretty flat performance, really", Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews said.
Sri Lankan spinners were expected to dominate in the England chase, but apart from Sachitra Senanayake's double strikes they were unimpressive.
Despite the dry nature of the pitch, it gave little or no turn to the spinners and the English batsmen as a result were under no pressure.
Senanayake, the comeback man for Sri Lanka, struck in his fourth ball to dismiss the dangerous Moeen Ali and followed up later by trapping England captain Alistair Cook lbw to leave England 35-2.
England 240 for 5 (Root 104*, Taylor 68) beat Sri Lanka 239 (Sangakkara 91, Woakes 6-47) by five wickets
