Jade Dernbach held his nerve as England beat Sri Lanka by 16 runs in the fifth one-day international at Old Trafford to seal a 3-2 series win over the World Cup finalists on Saturday.

Sri Lanka, chasing 269 for victory, finished on 252 all out with 10 balls of their innings left.

Dernbach dismissed dangerman Angelo Mathews for a near run-a-ball 62 with a clever slower ball that the all-rounder sliced to Tim Bresnan at backward point.

He then finished the match by yorking Lasith Malinga for a return of two for 49.

The tourists were in trouble at 131 for five, needing 138 more runs to win, when Mathews and Jeevan Mendis came together with 20 overs left.

But their sixth-wicket partnership of 102 troubled England until Mendis holed out to the left-arm spin of Samit Patel.

Malinga struck James Anderson for six to get the tourists’ target down to 17 off 12 balls.

But Dernbach’s double strike gave England captain Alastair Cook a win in his first series in permanent charge of the one-day side and his team a measure of revenge after a 10-wicket World Cup quarter-final defeat by Sri Lanka in Colombo in March.

Man-of-the-series Cook, who also starred in the preceding 1-0 Test series win over the islanders, was delighted by the way England kept their composure in the first tight match out of the five one-dayers.

“To play well under the pressure of a deciding match was very pleasing,” he told Sky Sports.

“We don’t want it to be close but we handled the pressure excellently today (Saturday).”

Sri Lanka’s reply got off to a dreadful start as they slumped to 12 for two inside four overs, fast-medium bowler Bresnan removing both openers on his way to three for 49 in nine overs.

Debutant batsman Dimuth Karunaratne edged Bresnan to Jonathan Trott at first slip for four and captain Tillakaratne Dilshan fell for the same score when he pulled the Yorkshireman straight to Dernbach at long leg.

Batting ace Mahela Jayawardene managed just nine before he mistimed a drive off Anderson to Cook at mid-off to the delight of a capacity 19,000 crowd.

Dinesh Chandimal counter-attacked by driving Bresnan for six and repeating the dose against off-spinner Graeme Swann.

But Chandimal, who made a superb unbeaten hundred in Sri Lanka’s six-wicket win at Lord’s last weekend, was out for 54 when he raced down the pitch to Swann only to be beaten in flight before being stumped by Craig Kieswetter.

Chandimal’s exit ended a partnership of 94 with experienced left-hander Kumar Sangakkara that had taken Sri Lanka to 123 for four in the 27th over.

Sangakkara followed soon afterwards, chopping on to Bresnan for 48.

That England made 268 for nine was largely down to a fourth-wicket stand of 118 between man-of-the-match Trott (72) and Eoin Morgan (57).

They had initially appeared set for a huge total when Cook put on 85 in quick time with Kieswetter after winning the toss to follow the pair’s unbroken stand of 171 in a crushing 10-wicket win at Trent Bridge on Wednesday.

Cook, who had made 119 and 95 not out in his previous two innings, was deceived on 31 by a sharply turning ball from Suraj Randiv and stumped by Sangakkara.

That was the first of five wickets for off-spinner Randiv, who finished with a career-best five for 42, surpassing his previous best return of three for 23 against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo last year.

Trott then completed his patient fifty before an unlucky dismissal saw a pull off Randiv get caught up in his body and trickle onto the stumps before he could kick the ball away.

“It was a lot easier coming in after Cook and Kieswetter had done such a good job,” said Trott.

“There is a lot of belief in our changing room and we’re very pleased to have beaten Sri Lanka in conditions today that are similar to Colombo.”

Scoreboard

England
C. Kieswetter b Prasad 43
A. Cook st Sangakkara b Randiv 31
J. Trott b Randiv 72
K. Pietersen c Sangakkara b Prasad 5
E. Morgan st Sangakkara b Dilshan 57
I. Bell c Kulasekara b Randiv 4
S. Patel c Mathews b Randiv 8
T. Bresnan c Sangakkara b Randiv 6
G. Swann run out (Dilshan/Kulasekara) 5
J. Anderson not out 12
J. Dernbach not out 3
Extras (b1, lb6, w15) 22
Total (9 wkts, 50 overs) 268
Fall of wickets: 1-85 (Cook), 2-87 (Kieswetter), 3-95 (Pietersen), 4-213 (Morgan), 5-222 (Bell), 6-233 (Trott), 7-243 (Patel), 8-243 (Bresnan), 9-253 (Swann)
Bowling: Dilshan 10-0-49-1 (9w); Kulasekara 8-0-51-0 (3w); Malinga 10-0-60-0 (2w); Prasad 6-0-26-2 (1w); Randiv 10-0-42-5; Mendis 6-0-33-0

Sri Lanka
D. Karunaratne c Trott b Bresnan 4
T. Dilshan c Dernbach b Bresnan 4
K. Sangakkara b Bresnan 48
M. Jayawardene c Cook b Anderson 9
D. Chandimal st Kieswetter b Swann 54
A. Mathews c Bresnan b Dernbach 62
J. Mendis c Pietersen b Patel 48
N. Kulasekara c Morgan b Anderson 4
S. Randiv run out (Anderson/Kieswetter) 0
L. Malinga b Dernbach 6
D. Prasad not out 0
Extras (lb9, w4) 13
Total (all out, 48.2 overs) 252
Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Karunaratne), 2-12 (Dilshan), 3-29 (Jayawardene), 4-123 (Chandimal), 5-131 (Sangakkara), 6-233 (Mendis), 7-245 (Kulasekara), 8-246 (Randiv), 9-252 (Mathews), 10-252 (Malinga)
Bowling: Anderson 10-0-55-2 (1w); Bresnan 9-0-49-3 (1w); Dernbach 9.2-0-49-2; Patel 10-0-49-1; Swann 10-2-41-1 (2w)

Result: England won by 16 runs
Man-of-the-match: Jonathan Trott (ENG)
Series: England win five-match series 3-2
Man-of-the-series: Alastair Cook (ENG)

Previous Results:
Jun 28: 1st ODI, The Oval: England won by 110 runs (D/L method)
Jul 01: 2nd ODI, Headingley: Sri Lanka won by 69 runs
Jul 03: 3rd ODI, Lord’s: Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets
Jul 06: 4th ODI, Trent Bridge: England won by 10 wickets (D/L method)

Toss: England
Umpires: Billy Bowden (NZL) and Nigel Llong (ENG)
TV umpire: Rob Bailey (ENG)
Match referee: Alan Hurst (AUS)