Mathews under fire as Aussies loom

Angelo Mathews has been forced to defend his role as Sri Lanka's captain and insisted he will not step down after another crushing defeat by England.

Sri Lanka lost the fifth and final one-day international by 122 runs in Cardiff as England took the series 3-0 ( with one tie and one no result) following their 2-0 success in the preceding three-Test campaign.

England, sent into bat by Mathews in the Welsh capital, made 324 for seven with Joe Root (93) and Jos Buttler (70) putting on 109 for the fifth wicket. Sri Lanka never looked like chasing down a target of 325 and were bowled out for 202 with 44 balls to spare.

Quick Single: Not the only captain feeling the heat

Sri Lanka, whose two wins this tour have come in a pair of one-day internationals in Ireland, will have one last chance for a victory on British soil this trip when they face England in a one-off Twenty20 at Southampton on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old allrounder became Test and one-day skipper in 2013 before taking on the T20 leadership just before this year's World Twenty20 in India.

His time in charge will not get any easier with the team due to return home to face the world No.1-ranked Australians with a three-Test series due to start on July 26.

"There will be good times as well as bad," Mathews said after the Cardiff defeat.

"This is a tough time for me as a captain and for the whole unit but you can't run away from it.

"I'm pretty sure if we keep improving day-by-day we can come out of this hole.

Quick Single: Keen to repay selectors' faith

"For the past two months we've been having the same problems, either batting bowling or fielding has let us down in every single game.

"Especially in the one-dayers we needed a perfect day to win against England.

"We didn't have that perfect game and we paid the price."

Last year Sri Lanka thrashed England by nine wickets at the World Cup in Wellington but since then batting greats Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have both retired.