England were short of runs, and appropriate bowling skills, as Kumar Sangakkara helped Sri Lanka to a six-wicket win in the fourth one-day international yesterday at the Premadasa Stadium.

James Taylor’s breakthrough innings of 90, in just his third ODI and first in 15 months, was the major contribution in a patchy 265 all out — stand-in captain Eoin Morgan (62) doing his best too to try to salvage a par total after choosing to bat on a dry pitch.

But it did not quite stretch the hosts, Sangakkara (86) sharing a stand of 96 with Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews finishing the job with an unbeaten 51 — farming an attack surprisingly loaded towards seam rather than spin — to keep Sri Lanka always just ahead of the game.

Whereas they used 36 overs of spin, Morgan had only 10 available to him from a front-line slow bowler — and Sangakkara took routine advantage, easing past his third successive half-century and hitting seven fours in all from 105 balls.

England were flattered that victory came with only two balls to spare — and from 3-1 down, they must win all the remaining fixtures if they are to somehow start their World Cup winter with a series success.

Eoin Morgan rued England’s lack of a second front-line spinner after the defeat.

“With the options we had, pace off was certainly the right option and it would have been nice to have another spinner,” Morgan told Sky Sports.

England require three straight wins to take the series and Morgan said: “We need to play our best cricket to do that, it’s a good challenge for our guys to front up.”

Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews saw his side over the line with an unbeaten 51.

“I was a bit nervous (at the end) but tried to stay calm, I knew we had wickets in hand.”

“The bowlers bowled brilliantly, especially the spinners, from the start England got we pulled them back really hard.”