London, Jul 4 (IANS): England batsman Alastair Cook is surprised over Sri Lanka stalling their victory charge at Lord's in the third ODI Sunday to allow Dinesh Chandimal reach his hundred.

Sri Lanka won the match by six wickets. England were bemused as Angelo Mathews put his teammate's personal glory before his country's - and made sure Chandimal got to his ton before winning.

Sri Lanka would have reached the target earlier, but with Chandimal on the verge of his century and not many runs required to reach the victory target, Mathews defended and allowed Chandimal (105 not out) to score his ton.

"It was a different finish," said Cook, who hit 119 in a losing cause.

"I've never seen that before. It is clear what they were doing, but it was a bit strange," Cook was quoted as saying in Mirror

"They're perfectly entitled to do that if they want, but it was slightly strange and you never know, the cricketing gods might look at that with a bit of disgust."

He meant the move might come back to bite the tourists on the backside.

Sri Lanka skipper Tillakeratne Dilshan said: "At first I was disappointed with our two batsmen (Mathews and Chandimal) out there.

"But they are learning the game and they did it because a Lord's hundred is special.

"And Angelo was only looking after his team-mate like family. We are a family unit."