Off-spinner Graeme Swann claimed a match-haul of 10 wickets as England set themselves modest target of 94 to win the second Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Saturday.
Swann followed his four wickets in the first innings with six in the second as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 278 at the stroke of lunch on the fifth day at the P. Sara Oval.
The tourists, who lost the first Test in Galle, need a win to level the short two-match series and retain their number one ranking.
The overnight pair of Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews, who resumed at 218 for six, survived close calls within the first 30 minutes of play.
Mathews was fortunate to see Alastair Cook put down two sharp chances at short-leg off Swann, first when the batsman was on three and then on 12.
Jayawardene, on 58, was reprieved by a television review in the day’s fourth over after on-field umpire Asad Rauf had upheld seamer James Anderson’s appeal for leg-before.
Cook finally held on to a catch at short-leg to remove the in-form Sri Lankan captain for 64 and give Swann his fifth wicket in the innings.
Jayawardene ended the series with 354 runs in four innings at an average of 88.50 with two hundreds and a half-century.
Swann then bowled Prasanna Jayawardene around his legs and Samit Patel removed Rangana Herath to reduce Sri Lanka to 251 for nine, before Mathews delayed the end with a fighting 46.
Mathews was last man out, caught at mid-wicket off seamer Steven Finn, who finished with two wickets.
Ten-wicket Swann brings England close to win
