A brilliant century from Kumar Sangakkara propelled Sri Lanka to a convincing seven-wicket win over England and keep Group A of the ICC Champions Trophy very much in the balance.
The crowd at The Oval were expecting a comfortable England victory, a win which would have seen the hosts into the semifinals, especially after Alastair Cook and co, posted 293 for seven in their 50 overs.
Cook (59), Jonathan Trott (76) and Joe Root (68) all struck half-centuries of note, while Ravi Bopara played an absolute gem in the final overs, scoring 33 from just 13 balls, to take the score to a formidable 293.
"It's a different wicket," Cook said. "It got better and better as the lights came onto it. I think we knew that was going to happen with the amount of kind of drizzle the last couple days and this morning.
"But, I'm not too disappointed. Clearly we had an opportunity to get up, to get into the semifinals, and we didn't take it. We've got another one in our next game.
"It's amazing how sometimes those little two or three overs can change a game. I think we were pretty satisfied (with the first innings total).
"Clearly now you're going to look and go, well, another 20 runs would have been nice, but as I said, 300 wins you a lot of games of cricket."
Sangakkara (134, 135b, 12x4) was just in the mood in the run chase, however, as Sri Lanka put behind them the early wicket of Kusal Perera to ease to the target with 17 balls to spare.
"The difference was an outstanding hundred from an outstanding cricketer, that was the difference," Cook said. "Sometimes you can come up short against a guy who plays as well as that, and you don't feel quite so bad.
"We tried a few different things, and the 120, 130, whatever he got bowled out, we didn't get a chance, so nothing we can sit here and say we had our opportunity. That was a very fine hundred."
The elegant left-hander first allied nicely with Tillakaratne Dilshan (44), before combining for 85 runs with the equally composed Mahela Jayawardene, who made 42 in 43 balls.
Then Sangakkara was joined by pinch-hitter Nuwan Kulasekara, who after an iffy couple of overs, played a brilliant 38-ball 58 to help his side to the win.
"I thought the wicket was flattened out really well right throughout the game," Sangakkara said. "We planned to try and get through Jimmy Anderson's overs.
"We know how dangerous Jimmy can be as well as Swann, and everyone else in support managed to get through those tough periods pretty well.
"It's a shame, we had our chances, we probably should have won in Cardiff (in the first game against New Zealand), we tried everything we could, and probably lost the game through no fault of our own, but coming here and winning this was a good, I think, confidence boost for us going into Australia."
All four teams can still make it to the semifinals with England taking on New Zealand, the team that beat them 2-1 in the series prior to the Champions Trophy, in their final game, before Sri Lanka lock horns with Australia, who are yet to taste victory after their last match against the Kiwis was rained off.
