Sri Lanka secured a rare Test victory in England on Monday, achieving their target of 219 with relative ease on the fourth day at The Oval. Pathum Nissanka's unbeaten 127 guided them to a consolation win, despite the series ending in a 2-1 defeat. Following their strong finish on Sunday's final session, Sri Lanka resumed at 94-1, needing just 125 more runs to secure victory. They accomplished this in under two and a half hours, finishing at 219-2 and winning by eight wickets.

This triumph marked Sri Lanka's fourth victory in 21 Tests in England over four decades and their first since a 1-0 victory in a two-Test series a decade ago. 'It is very special, winning in England,' Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva told the BBC. 'The boys were tough enough to handle the pressure and get into some scenarios. It is not comfortable. There was hard work put in by the bowlers and batters. We were there in every match - had positive points. The boys wanted to win in the end.'

Credit was given to all the bowlers, who were consistently accurate from the first ball. Nissanka's performance particularly stood out, proving him to be the best opener in Sri Lanka currently. Their aggressive play on Sunday evening had positioned them as favorites, though the sparse England fans at The Oval knew that a few early wickets could turn the tide.

Kusal Mendis added nine runs to his overnight 30 before a superb running catch by Shoaib Bashir gave Gus Atkinson another wicket, but this was England's only highlight on a gloomy day in south London. Nissanka, who had scored a rapid 53 not out in Sunday's final session, initially played more cautiously but steadily built his score, reaching his second Test century off 107 balls. With Angelo Mathews also looking comfortable on 32 not out, the victory was secured without needing the entire first session.

England had hoped for a 6-0 summer clean sweep after dominating the West Indies 3-0 and securing two convincing victories over Sri Lanka. They seemed well-positioned for a third win after reaching 261-3 in their first innings, but a collapse to 325 kept the tourists in contention. Despite managing only 263 in reply, Sri Lanka's bowlers restricted England to 156 in 34 overs on Sunday, setting up their successful chase.

'We felt we were in a really good position and were outplayed for the last day and a session,' England captain Ollie Pope said. 'We didn't bat our best yesterday and didn't bowl our best... We would have liked to have 400 on board in that first dig but felt there was a fair bit in the wicket and felt we could bowl them out for a fair bit less than us... A few chances went down but that is cricket.'

England now shift their focus to white ball cricket against Australia, beginning with a T20 on Wednesday.