A valiant century from Jonathon Trott was not enough to save England from falling to a fourth successive Test defeat as Sri Lanka won the first Test in Galle by 75 runs.
Rangana Herath took six for 97 to finish with 12 wickets in the match as Sri Lanka showed patience to finish England's resistance off as they were bowled out for 264 chasing 340.
Herath was well supported by Suraj Randiv, who took four for 74, which including the key wicket of Trott, who was caught for 112 by Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Trott's seventh century had given England hope, and a stand of 81 for the sixth wicket with Matt Prior (41) had given England hope.
But once Prior was dismissed the end was nigh for England, with their last six wickets falling for just 31 runs.
The defeat for England comes after they lost 3-0 to Pakistan earlier in the year.
The second Test in Colombo is between April 3-7.