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Brook’s 202 was the first by an England batter in one-day internationals and the fastest ever in the format off 114 deliveries.

England's white-ball captain took 13 off his first 24 deliveries before motoring to a 75-ball century and he made it a twin ton in the final over to underpin his side’s mammoth 429 for four.

Yet their fourth-highest 50-over score and best overseas total against a Test-playing nation was insufficient in a two-wicket defeat.

Sri Lanka recovered from 24 for two thanks to Pavan Rathnayake’s 130 off 106 balls and knocks of 97 from both Avishka Fernando and Dasun Shanaka, despite the asking rate being in double figures for most of the reply.

However, having whittled the target down to eight runs from the final over Janith Liyanage belted Josh Tongue’s penultimate delivery for six as Sri Lanka recorded the second-highest ODI run-chase ever.

Two defeats from two puts England in last-chance saloon territory if they are to make next weekend’s final in Lahore.

Speaking afterwards, a shellshocked Brook said: "I always say I want to make match-winning contributions and have a match-winning impact.

"Unfortunately I’ve got 200 and it’s not been match-winning. In my eyes, it doesn't matter.

He added: "We can take a lot of learnings from that game.

"We definitely didn’t execute what we were trying to do for long enough. We were trying to keep the stumps in play as much as we possibly could, we were probably erring on the short side which played into their hands.

"But to be involved in a game like that is incredible and hats off to Sri Lanka, they’ve played an absolute blinder there."