Johannesburg, Sept. 25: As has been the early pattern in this tournament, England spurned the opportunity to close the door on Sri Lanka in their first Group B match of the 2009 Champions Trophy under lowering skies and blustery winds at the Wanderers here on Friday.

Opting to field first in ideal conditions for his swing-oriented attack, Andrew Strauss inexplicably eased the early pressure mounted by James Anderson and Graham Onions with the induction of Stuart Broad with the Lankans reeling at 17/4.

Broad - who later redeemed himself somewhat - was unable to find the lines to test the rest of the batting lineup and Sri Lanka were more than happy to make the most of England's largesse, eventually totalling 212 in 47.3 overs.

Anderson and Onions had early figures of 2/11 in seven overs and 2/25 from four respectively.

Two partnerships turned matters around for Sri Lanka. After Tillekaratne Dilshan (2), Sanath Jayasuriya (0), Kumar Sangakkara (1) and Mahela Jayawardena (9) had all gone by the sixth over, the two Thilans, Samaraweera and Kandamby, fought back with a 64-run association for the fifth wicket.

Building on that was an 82-run stand between Kandamby (53, 82b, 5x4) and Angelo Mathews that was broken by an awful mix-up. Kandamby played Paul Collingwood into the covers and ran. Mathews was not interested but Kandamby did not even notice as he motored towards the non-striker's end. All Luke Wright had to do was lob the ball to Matthew Prior behind the stumps to complete the dismissal. More drama was to follow when Mathews was obstructed going for a second run by bowler Onions. The batsman stopped to protest and the stumps were thrown down. Mathews continued to protest, the umpires conferred and sent him on his way. Better sense prevailed and Strauss withdrew the appeal and reaped the benefit almost immediately when Mathews (52, 73b, 6x4) was caught behind off Wright's part-time seam-up stuff having added just one more to his total. Late in the innings Muttiah Muralitharan, who fancies himself as a batsman, whacked a few lusty blows en route a 10-ball 18 that included a sweetly-timed six off Broad while Nuwan Kulasekara finished unbeaten on 17 (1x4, 1x6). For the second game in a row, the side batting first failed to last the 50 overs, with Sri Lanka dismissed in the 48th over.

Scores: Sri Lanka 212 in 47.3 overs (Kandamby 53, Mathews 52; Anderson 3/20, Broad 3/49, Onions 2/58) vs England