England emerged from their opening Test defeat by Sri Lanka angry and frustrated by over-zealous appealing and unjust umpiring decisions but fully aware of the scale of the task ahead of them in the remainder of the series.

Sri Lanka proved themselves a highly-proficient side in home conditions, capable of brushing aside the best of opponents as South Africa and Australia have discovered in recent years.

But accompanied with that great talent is a more cynical side which involves persistent appealing to put pressure on the umpires.

The tactic was used so effectively that England suffered a series of ill-judgements and match referee Hanument Singh fined four Sri Lankan players for their behaviour.

Their antics left a sour taste with England as they contemplated their innings-and-28-run defeat, which was completed just 54 minutes after lunch on the final day and ends a seven-Test unbeaten run which stretches back to the opening encounter with West Indies at Edgbaston last summer.

''They are a very good side and I don't think they need all these periphery things going on to play good cricket,'' said England captain Nasser Hussain.

''They batted and bowled really well and caught exceptionally around the bat so why do we need these periphery things?

''I don't think this game needed all this controversy. It would have been a very good game of cricket because both sides played some good cricket.''

International Cricket Committee official Singh agreed with Hussain to a point and enforced a 25 per cent fine of the match fee on Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold and Kumar Sangakkara. He also warned captain Sanath Jayasuriya about his future conduct.

''I don't know if I'm allowed to comment on these things or not,'' said Hussain, who is banned from speaking about umpiring decisions as captain under the ICC's code of conduct.

''Some of the standard of umpiring, some of the appealing, some of the running on the wicket and the whole thing that went on in this game wasn't needed.

''So many things went on, it leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. I feel that I, as one, should be able to say 'Let's not do this next time'."

For all England's complaints about Sri Lankan tactics and the standard of umpiring, though, the fact remains that they were beaten by a highly-talented side who will take some stopping during the remaining two Tests in the series.

Resuming 99 behind on 118 for two, the tourists knew they needed to bat all day to salvage anything from the match and travel to Kandy for the second Test on level terms.

After losing three vital wickets before lunch, their final five wickets fell in only 10.3 overs after the interval to leave England facing a long week ahead analysing their way forward against high-class spin on turning wickets.

They had begun the final day with opener Michael Atherton, who had already battled for over four hours for his 44, shouldering the responsibility of guiding their survival battle.

But less than a day after Graeme Hick was given a suspended one-match ban for showing dissent after a series of umpiring misjudgements, the tourists' hopes were undermined by another error to remove Atherton with the 13th ball of the day.

Pushing forward to a swinging delivery from left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas, Atherton edged behind and wicketkeeper Sangakkara claimed the catch after diving forward.

But as Atherton walked back to the dressing room, television replays proved the ball had bounced in front before Sangakarra collected it in his gloves and yet another misjudgement, this time from Indian official AV Jayaprakash, had counted against England.

Graham Thorpe and Alec Stewart rightly dug in and attempted to steer England safely through to lunch, but it only delayed the inevitable with the Sri Lankan spinners wrapping up an emphatic victory.

Kumar Dharmasena, a replacement for Muralitharan in the attack while he was off the field, responded by proving a more than adequate stand-in and ended Thorpe's stay of nearly two hours at the crease, trapping him leg before on the back foot in front of his stumps.

Hick defied Sri Lanka for a further 10 overs to take England to within two overs of lunch. But he fell after edging behind when Jayawardene dived to his right to claim the catch.

Once they returned from lunch, the Sri Lankan spinners took control with Craig White, adjudged not out by Jayaprakash off the previous ball when he guided Muralitharan to Tillekeratne Dilshan at silly point, trapped leg before despite pushing his front pad outside the line of off stump.

Andrew Caddick was bowled around his legs three overs later by Jayasuriya while Muralitharan claimed two of the last three wickets to finish with seven wickets in the match