Unusual thrashings come no more predictable than Sri Lanka's demolition of England in the quarter-final of the 1996 World Cup. It was unusual because Sri Lanka had never beaten England in the World Cup and had never qualified for the semi-finals; England had never failed to reach the semi-finals. Yet the buildup to the tournament group stages told us that history was more or less bunk. Sri Lanka – who were 66-1 outsiders two months before the tournament started – were relatively fresh and in familiar conditions; England were knackered and might as well have been on Mars, so little experience did they have of one-day cricket in Asia. Sri Lanka were playing 21st-century one-day cricket, with pinch hitters and pace off the ball; England's tactics were straight outta 1985.

For all that, nobody expected that Hurricane Jayasuriya would devastate England to such an extent. After England posted a feeble 235, Sanath Jayasuriya blazed an astonishing 82 from 44 balls, including 13 fours and three sixes. He let the ball do the work, with 85% of his runs in boundaries. It was a vicious, tinnitus-inducing assault on the senses. "This is murder," said the commentator Tony Lewis – and at that stage Sri Lanka were only 35 for one after four overs. It was murder most thrilling, the kind that makes you put away the partisanship and allow the hairs on the back of the neck to do what they need to do. He pumped Richard Illingworth for four consecutive fours in that fourth over, and then belted Phil DeFreitas's second over for 22, including a terrifying straight six on to the roof.

By the time he fell to Dermot Reeve, Sri Lanka were 113 for two – in the 13th over. This was truly without precedent: never before in 1077 ODIs had an opener made a fifty-plus score at such speed. This was the day pinch-hitting came of age. And had one helluva noisy party to celebrate.

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2. Michael Vaughan saves the match, second Test, Kandy, 13-14 December 2003

When Michael Vaughan succeeded Nasser Hussain in 2003, England swapped a great batsman for a great captain. It was a fair trade, but that does not reduce the sadness at the loss of Vaughan the batsman. At that time he was the most watchable England player since David Gower and was scoring runs in industrial quantities. In 15 Tests between May 2002 and July 2003, when he took the captaincy, Vaughan averaged 72.54, including a storming personal tour of Australia. For the rest of his Test career, he averaged 36.02.

He did play one truly great innings as captain, however, a match-saving marathon against Muttiah Muralitharan and Sri Lanka at Kandy in 2003-04. Vaughan was aided by some strangely negative fields, but this was still a masterpiece of technique, concentration, fitness and conviction. Think Jonathan Trott on Thursday but longer, against Murali and with a happy ending. What made it even more special is that it was an atypical Vaughan innings. Even though this 105 was almost half his highest Test score (195), it was the longest innings of his career in terms of balls (333) and minutes (448). That included 133 deliveries from Murali, scary new doosra and all, before he was finally caught off bat and pad. Chris Read and Gareth Batty saw England through to a second successive backs-to-the-wall draw.

Before his epiphany in the winter of 2001-02, Vaughan was widely compared to Michael Atherton, and this innings was spoken of in the same breath as Atherton's Johannesburg epic. While it was not quite in the same class – Atherton batted three hours longer and saw the job through – it was still one of the great England captain's rearguards.

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3. Murali takes 16 wickets, one-off Test, The Oval, 27-31 August 1998

It's not fair to say that Sri Lanka were a one-man team with Muttiah Muralitharan. Somebody had to take the catches, after all. For all the genuine brilliance of his consigliere Chaminda Vaas, Murali won a staggering number of Tests off his own bat. Or, rather, his own ball. He took 67 five-wicket hauls (the next best is Shane Warne with 37) and 22 10-wicket hauls (Warne is next with 10). He had taken only one of those 22 10-fors, against Zimbabwe, when Sri Lanka rolled up at The Oval in 1998. Murali was far from unknown – he had 187 Test wickets and was generally recognised as the world's best off-spinner – but there was a sense that England could cope with his not inconsiderable wiles. Arf!

Without the injured Vaas, Murali dominated the match to an astonishing degree. He took 16 for 220, the fifth-best match figures in a Test and still the best since 1988. That included 14 of the last 15 wickets to fall; the other was the run-out of Alec Stewart. Without that, he would surely have taken all 10 in the second innings.

England had helped to dig their own grave, preparing a pitch that could have been dropped straight in from Galle. This despite the fact Sri Lanka had Murali and England had Ian Salisbury. In other respects, however, they were notably lacking in generosity. The coach, David Lloyd, chuntered about Murali's action, while the whole game existed against a backdrop of apparent English contempt for Sri Lanka. A couple of years earlier they had turned down a tour of Sri Lanka because they did not want to play more than one Test – and then played two in Zimbabwe. They would never patronise Sri Lanka again, not after this.

Murali took a bit of tap in the first innings, ending with seven for 155 as England posted 445, the sort of total that usually granted immunity from defeat in the 20th century. But Sri Lanka roared to 591, with a raucous 213 from Jayasuriya, a pristine 152 from Aravinda de Silva and even a jaunty 30 from Murali. England's second innings became the slowest torture: Murali chipped away and England were eventually bowled out for 181. It had taken them 129.2 overs.

It was headline news, and sometimes good headlines don't need any plays on words. The back page of the Guardian the following day said simply "9 FOR 65". It was the first time somebody had taken nine wickets against England in England; in this paper, Mike Selvey said it was "bowling that bordered on fantasy". Murali would take 10-fors for fun over the next 12 years, but this remained his defining performance.

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4. England chase 50 in five overs, third Test, Manchester, 17 August 2002

In the 21st century football has been such a boor, and such a bore, that cricket has had no chance of competing for attention. During a World Cup, there's even less hope than usual. So it is that England's 2-0 win over Sri Lanka in 2002 – their last Test series to be played during a World Cup – has been forgotten by many. If it was noticed in the first place. Yet the last day of the Old Trafford Test, when England chased a target 50 in six overs so late in the day that Coronation Street had started, was one of England's happiest days of the decade.

With Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick injured, a young England attack led by Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff – all lemon-blond hair and fresh-faced optimism – scripted an unlikely victory. They were supported by the in-form Alex Tudor, with Simon Jones on the field as sub as well. The winning runs were then scored by Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan. Tudor fell away, of course, but this was nonetheless a thrilling glimpse of an Ashes-winning future.

On that last day, England were able to play with the unique excitement and lack of pressure that comes when you are in total control of a match you only need to draw to take the series. Sri Lanka were only four down at tea; if the game was drawn, so be it. But England worked away until, with the clock past 7pm, Ashley Giles took the last two wickets with consecutive balls. The target was 50 from six overs.

Duncan Fletcher recalled the scene in his autobiography. "[Nasser] Hussain came hurtling off the field in a state of hyperexcitement – more so than I'd ever seen him before – and said to me: 'You handle the batting order. I'm too excited.'" During the 10-minute break between innings, England had eight batsmen padded up. In the end they needed only two: Vaughan and Trescothick breezed to the target with an over to spare. The game ended at 7.34pm, one of the latest finishes to a Test in England.

It had been a great match for Hussain the captain. In the first innings he instinctively put himself at leg gully for Aravinda de Silva and caught him next ball. We rightly remember 2000-01 as the zenith of Hussain's reign, but in terms of tactical acumen and sheer fun this was probably his high point. In the next Test of the summer, on a flat deck at Lord's, he masterminded a brilliant victory over India. Having so many good young players around seemed to take years off him. Those years were put back on with interest the following winter by an Ashes thrashing and the Zimbabwe controversy. Soon afterwards Hussain resigned, and it was Vaughan who oversaw this team's development. For one moment in time, however, Hussain's young team made English cricket feel seriously good about itself. And who cares if anyone else noticed?

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5. Duleep Mendis's joy of six, one-off Test, Lord's, 23-28 August 1984

It takes a special team to end a run of defeats with a humiliating draw. In the 1980s, England were that team. Having been pummelled all summer by West Indies, they were expected to get some post-Blackwash relief in a one-off Test against Sri Lanka, who were playing their first Test in England. The Sri Lankans had never won a Test and were supposed to be pushovers, but they had by far the better of the five days. England were left batting for a draw and/or their pride. One out of two ain't bad,

When David Gower put Sri Lanka in on the Thursday morning, he probably thought England would be batting by teatime. In fact the most noteworthy event of the day was a pitch invasion by Tamil demonstrators. England were still in the field on Saturday morning as Sri Lanka ploughed on and on and on. The match is best remembered for Sidath Wettimuny's epic 11-hour 190; justly so, but it tends to overshadow a formidable burst of hitting from the captain Duleep Mendis. He made 111 from 143 balls and 94 from 97, striking three sixes in each innings. Nobody has cleared the boundary more often in a Test between these sides.

In the first innings, Ian Botham looked Mendis up and down, saw a little fat chap and deduced that he couldn't possibly like it up him. A short ball was hooked majestically into the Mound Stand. In the next over, Botham dug in another short ball. Six more. Can you guess what happened next? Botham has disappeared for 22 in three overs with the second new ball, including three hooked sixes, and was taken off by Gower. The decision did not meet with universal approval around the ground; the pockets of Sri Lanka fans chanted: "We want Botham!"

The archetypal captain's innings is a grizzled, over-my-dead-body affair, like Michael Vaughan's earlier in this piece. Mendis's innings were of a different hue; thrillingly unfettered assertions of the magical, unorthodox talent that lurked within this nascent Test-match nation. (You get a little sense of Mendis's brilliance in this video, when he takes on Dennis Lillee with similar gusto.)

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6. The players go off for lunch, one-off Test, Lord's, 30 August 1988

It takes a special team to end a long winless run with a farcical victory. In the 1980s, England were that team. This was their first win in 19 Tests, a comfortable defeat of a modest Sri Lanka side and a game in which the debutants Jack Russell and Phil Newport starred, yet it ended in ridiculous circumstances.

To explain. England were cruising to victory just before lunch on the final day. With one run needed, Tim Robinson blocked the last three balls of the over, probably thinking there was time for another over before lunch. The umpire David Constant took the bails off, even though many people thought the clock wasn't quite up to 1pm. For such a scholarly game, cricket has always been common-sensually challenged.

As dark clouds converged over Lord's during the lunch break, the possibility of a humiliating draw increased. The clouds went away, however, and Robin Smith hit the winning runs straight after the interval.

Then the fun really began. The England captain, Graham Gooch, was desperate to get away so that he could join Essex's title challenge at Surrey, but the presentation ceremony was delayed because the BBC wanted to show it live, what with this being England's first win since 1874. They couldn't do so straight away, because – and you'll like this - Neighbours was on. While Gooch paced up and down, Paul Robinson was busy trying to restore his grandmother Helen Daniels' badly shaken artistic confidence.

"WHAT A CARRY ON" screamed the Daily Mirror the next day, with the subhead "NEIGHBOURS BAT FIRST!" Gooch, who had lost nearly an hour because of Tim Robinson's dead bat and Paul Robinson's desire to get his grandmother painting again, eventually got there in time to watch a promising youngster called Alec Stewart make a hundred.

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