Moeen Ali struck a quickfire 34 before being dismissed by a virtually unplayable delivery from Tillakaratne Dilshan as England went down by 90 runs in the sixth ODI with Sri Lanka in Pallekele.
The Worcestershire all-rounder had looked in fine form and had handed out some heavy punishement to Dilshan.
In one over Moeen hit Dilshan for two sixes via a slog sweep and over extra cover in addition to picking up a four through a lofted cover drive.
He stuck two six and four fours in making his runs off 32 balls but the last delivery of the 10 over mandatory powerplay led to his downfall.
Dilshan produced a delivery which pitched on middle and leg and then turned and bounced and Moeen could only edge through to keeper Kumar Sangakkara who pulled off a fine catch.
That left England on 50-3 and they continued to struggle in pursuit of Sri Lanka's 292-7 from 50 overs and were bowled out for 202 in 41.3 overs.
It means Sri Lanka are guaranteed to win the seven match series as they lead 4-2.
Sangakkara had continued his fine form by making a run a ball 112 with two sixes and 12 fours.
Moeen came on first change and bowled eight overs for 46 runs.
