Sussex fast bowler James Kirtley has been praised by Geoff Boycott after helping England off to a winning start against Sri Lanka.

Kirtley claimed two wickets and a catch in the high-scoring day-night match in the NatWest Series at Trent Bridge.

Former England opener Boycott said: "I like the look of the lad. All the talk has been about his action, but I was watching not just the way he performed but the way he was thinking.

"He bowled it in the right place, came around the wicket to the left-handers at the right time and kept the ball up when he came back on at the end."

Kirtley, who opened the bowling with Matthew Hoggard, returned highly respectable figures of 2-40 from his ten overs after whipping out the Sri Lankan tailenders.

Andrew Flintoff was star of the show with bat and ball. He thrilled a capacity 15,500 Trent Bridge crowd by scoring the fastest half-century by an England player in a one-day international before claiming 3-48 as Sri Lanka's reply lost momentum.

His performance ensured England completed their first victory on home soil since beating Zimbabwe in the final of this same competition nearly two years ago.

The whole tone of their performance was set by Flintoff. When he strode out to bat at the start of the 40th over, England were on course for no more than a modest score on 199-5 but Flintoff transformed their innings by hammering 50 off 28 balls including two sixes and five other boundaries to guide them to 293-6.

His strokeplay helped England add 87 in the final ten overs and, instead of chasing a modest target, Sri Lanka were suddenly facing the biggest total in the three-year history of the NatWest Series.

Knowing they had more than enough strokemakers to make a challenge to England's total, Sri Lanka began positively only for captain Nasser Hussain to lift his side with a magnificent catch diving to his left at short extra cover to dismiss Sanath Jayasuriya.

If that was supposed to unsettle the tourists, they showed little sign of unrest and were pacing their reply magnificently, with Marvan Atapattu and Romesh Kaluwitharana forging a 72-run second wicket partnership off only 88 balls.

Just when they needed the breakthrough, Flintoff provided it when he tempted Atapattu into driving loosely to mid-off and Ronnie Irani took a superb diving catch.

Thorpe took a similarly blinding catch at mid-wicket to remove Kaluwitharana for 52.