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Rain saved England from finishing the Sri Lankan tour at a 0-2 margin. If not for rain, England were looking vulnerable of getting defeated as the top order collapsed yet again. England finished at 251 for 6 in their second innings after following on in the third and final test at the fortified city of Galle.

Galle was hosting its first ever international match after the Tsunami destruction. The test match couldn't get underway on time and was always under rain threat. Once the match got kicking, the Sri Lankan batsmen were in a mission of piling up a huge score after winning the toss. On Day 1, it was England, who got on top as they restricted the homeside to a shaky 147 for 4. Steve Harmison was nearly back at his destructive best. But the second day saw England bowlers look flat as the Sri Lankan Skipper Mahela Jayawardene led from the front to take his side to 384 for 6 by stumps. Mahela helped himself to 149.

On the third day, Sri Lanka batted for more than an hour to stretch their total to 499 for 8 in 148.5 overs before declaring. Mahela Jayawardene remained unconquered with 213 with 25 fours, he had faced 411 balls in an innings that was more than 10 hours long. Tillakaratne Dilshan with 84 (from 137 balls with 11 fours), Chaminda Vaas with 90 (from 133 balls with 11 fours) and Kumar Sangakkara with 46 were the other significant contributors of the Sri Lankan innings. Steve Harmison ended up with a tame 3 for 104 after bowling 34 overs.

The match turned on its head by lunch on the third day as Chaminda Vaas struck gold with the brand new cherry removing Michael Vaughan cheaply. Sri Lanka went onto pick up another three wickets, two to Vaas, one to Malinga and the other being a run out in the 8 overs that were possible before lunch. England were looking bad at 24 for 4. The post lunch session wasn't any different with wickets continuing to fall. Not even a rain break could help England from crumbling to a miserable 81 all out. The innings lasted just 30.5 overs and in terms of time, just over a couple of hours. Vaas proved that he still had the wicket taking abilities against top class batsmen, he had dream figures of 4 for 28 in just 9.5 overs. Debutant left arm quick, Chanaka Welegedara impressed with a couple of wickets. Murali for once didn't have to do much.

England were asked to follow on and as expected they fought back hard through their talented batsmen. Alastair Cook led the way and the rain complemented his efforts to have England secured at 102 for 1 on a shortened fourth day's play which hardly had a session of play. On the final day, Muralitharan decided to run through the English batting line-up. In the 65th over, he sent back three England batsmen back to the pavilion to get his side into a winning position. Pietersen failed yet again and he finished the series without a single good score. After lunch, there was a consolation for the visitors in the form of a Cook hundred but once the opener got dismissed by debutant Welegedara, the tail was exposed for Murali and co. Cook made 118 (from 285 balls with 12 fours) in over six hours of batting.

After Cook's exit, it was just the matter of four more wickets to take for Sri Lanka. However, rain came on time to end the match at 251 for 6 in 95 overs. Matthew Prior made a significant contribution in the match by keeping his wicket intact after battling hard for 100 balls. Sri Lanka had to be content of winning the series 1-0. Their skipper, Mahela Jayawardene got both the Man of the Match and the Man of the Series awards.

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