Gaji
Angelo Mathews confused both his own captain and England's Alastair Cook with his resolve to ensure team-mate Dinesh Chandimal put a Lord's hundred.
Cook was even enthused to propose the "gods of cricket" might have view the bizarre end to this NatWest Series match with "revulsion", as Sri Lanka briefly in danger to blow certain victory for the sake of one batsman's personal attainment.
As it was, 21-year-old Chandimal finished an unbeaten 105 in a six-wicket win which came with 10 balls to spare as Sri Lanka went 2-1 up with two to play.
There was, however, a brief instant when Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan began to wonder whether Mathews was put his team under unnecessary pressure. The all-rounder broken up with one not out from 21 balls, having pat the 47th over of the innings back to Jade Dernbach for a maiden.
Word, in the shape of a substitute bat for Chandimal, came from the tourists' bandage room that sufficient was enough, and the number three respond by clubbing a six over long-on off Tim Bresnan to arrive at his hundred and put the result beyond lasting doubt.
Cook, who had earlier made a strong-minded 119 in England's under-par 246 for seven, said of Mathews' antics: "It was dissimilar. I've never seen that before.
"You'll almost certainly have to ask them precisely what they were doing, although I think it's quite clear.
"They're perfectly free to do it if they want. It's just slightly strange and you never know, the cricketing gods might look down in a bit of revulsion.
"It was receiving close, wasn't it?"
It was clear that Dilshan thought similarly, as aggravation forced him from his seat on the pavilion balcony.
Asked afterwards about Mathews' behaviour, he obviously still had mixed feelings.
"That bit dissatisfied me," he said. "But they are youngsters and they are learning every time in the middle.
"I'm actually happy Chandimal got a hundred, particularly at Lord's. "Angelo Mathews not attractive the singles shows we are working like a family, a team, a unit - and overall I'm really happy."
Cook had less to smile about, in spite of his own second ODI century, accepting England simply did not make sufficient runs.
"We had a bit of a slow start and lost a couple of wickets," Cook added. "Then I and KP [Kevin Pietersen] had a good partnership but we just kept losing wickets at the wrong time and were then forever playing re-building cricket.
"That's never a way of receiving a big score and we were almost certainly about 40 short. I thought 280 or 290 was defendable."
England requires winning at Trent Bridge on Wednesday to keep away from a series defeat, and Cook added: "We will review this game, where we think we can get better.
"Our batting line-up hasn't fired, hasn't scored enough runs in the last two games. "If we want to win games we're going to have to fire more time after time."
However, Cook does not acknowledge what some see as a potentially chronic problem with a limited-overs team which has to put up his and Jonathan Trott's naturally accumulative style of batting.
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