England have been set a target of 257 runs to win their second one-day international against Sri Lanka in Durham.
The Three Lions, who are 1-0 up in the five-match series, won the toss and decided to field before the Sri Lankans reached 256-8 from their 50 overs.
England made the breakthrough in the ninth over when Lahiru Thirimanne (10) was caught in the slips by James Tredwell off the bowling of James Anderson.
However, Tillakaratne Dilshan reached his half-century in the 25th over as he and Kumar Sangakkara made life difficult for the hosts out in the middle.
Dilshan and Sangakkara started to push hard at the crease in at attempt to up their team's run rate before Sangakkara (40) was caught behind by Jos Buttler following a delivery from Tredwell.
England did not have to wait long for their next wicket as Mahela Jayawardene was run out by Gary Ballance for just two runs, leaving Sri Lanka on 136-3.
Dilshan looked to be heading towards his century thanks to some fluid hitting, but he was eventually dismissed by Chris Jordan having scored 88 runs off 101 deliveries.
Angelo Mathews (30) and Ashan Priyanjan (43) were bowled by Harry Gurney and Anderson respectively towards the end of the innings, while Dinesh Chandimal (14) and Nuwan Kulasekara (0) both fell victim to Gurney late on.