Nottingham, England, July 07: Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter put on an unbroken 171-run stand as England thrashed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets on Wednesday to level the one-day international series at 2-2 and ensure the final match is a decider.
Cook, England's newly appointed ODI captain, hit 95 and Kieswetter made 72 to steer the hosts to a revised winning target of 171 in less than 24 overs after Sri Lanka was bowled out for 174 in a rain-affected fourth ODI at Trent Bridge.
The England captain smashed 16 boundaries from 75 balls only three days after hitting 119 in the third ODI, silencing those who believe his orthodox style stifles his scoring rate and should preclude him from playing limited-overs cricket.
Kieswetter, an explosive wicketkeeper-opener, hit eight boundaries and three sixes from 68 deliveries for an inferior run rate of 105.88 to Cook's 126.66.
The fifth match is on Saturday at Old Trafford.
Earlier, England bowlers James Anderson took 3-24 and Jade Dernbach 3-38 as Sri Lanka was bundled out in only 43.4 overs, with Kumar Sangakkara's gritty 75 the top score for the visitors.
After rain held up the start of the match by 40 minutes, Anderson took three wickets in a devastating opening spell of swing bowling.
But Sangakkara put on 37 for the fifth wicket alongside the promoted Suraj Randiv and 72 with Angelo Mathews, who fell to a full-length diving catch by Tim Bresnan off his own bowling.
Sangakkara was eventually the last man out, falling when Eoin Morgan took a running catch off Dernbach at gully.
Bresnan and Stuart Broad took two wickets each.
Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan failed with the bat, departing without scoring when he edged the fifth ball of the innings to Kieswetter.
Without the temptation to lash out with risky strokeplay, the limited Randiv managed to block the rampant pace attack long enough for Sri Lanka to gain a foothold after he was sent in at No. 6 instead of No. 10.
He eventually fell for a spirited 18, Broad grabbing his first wicket of the series to make it 5-57. With Sangakkara now more settled, Sri Lanka added another 72 in relative comfort before Bresnan dismissed Mathews.
Mathews had made it to 39 from 49 balls when a looping leading edge looked set to drop just short of Bresnan, only for the bowler to add a burst to his follow through and take the ball just above the ground with his fingertips.
Kieswetter caught a tricky high chance to get rid of Mendis for 11 off the bowling of Broad, whose line outside offstump constantly caused problems for the batsmen.
Jade Dernbach trapped Nuwan Kulasekera lbw for 5, bowled Lasith Malinga for 0 and finally got rid of Sangakkara.
But Sri Lanka had done well to get so far.
Dilshan said he would have chosen to bat anyway had he called the toss correctly, but put his team in early trouble when he fell for 1-1. Mahela Jayawardene, with 219 runs from the first three matches, edged Bresnan to Jonathan Trott at slip for 9 and Anderson trapped Dinesh Chandimal lbw for 0.
Thilina Kandamby then touched Anderson to Graeme Swann to make it 20-4. AP
