Jayawardene's batting had a huge impact on the series

"I think we wanted to win this series more than they did. We saw a lot of negativity in that camp," said Jayawardene, whose side won 1-0.

"That's when we realised from that if we concentrate, focus well and play to our strengths then they could not get close to us."

Sri Lanka moved to third in the Test rankings. England dropped to fifth.

Interview: Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene

I take 1-0 but probably we should have been 2-0 Mahela Jayawardene

Although England batted out a draw in the rain-hit third Test, Jayawardene's men regained confidence from the series after being beaten 2-0 by Australia in November.

And the skipper credited their success to lessons learned under former coach Tom Moody, who was at the helm when they won key Tests overseas last year.

"This was an important Test series for us coming back from Australia. We needed to get things right," he continued.

"If you want to compete away from home you need to be a bit more positive and aggressive and believe in yourself - that's something Tom Moody wanted us to do.

"We saw the results of that change of thinking with wins in England and New Zealand in 2006."

606: DEBATE Where would you place Sri Lanka in the world rankings?

Jayawardene believes his side deserved to win the series more emphatically but they were frustrated by bad weather at the end.

"It's unfortunate that we can't control the weather but I am very happy with the overall performance," he added.

"The first Test match was a close one as they really pushed us. We did well to win that. The second and third Test matches we dominated and improved as a team.