• England bowlers made to toil after fine start
• Mahela Jayawardene leads Sri Lanka recovery
Almost single-handedly throughout the day, the Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jaywardene prevented England from establishing a position of strength from which, even at this early stage, with the ball already biting in the dust for the spinners, they might have nurtured hope of winning the match.
More than that in fact: singlehandedly Jayawardene has turned adversity into an opportunity for his own side. Sri Lanka won a good toss, which was a start for them, but lost early wickets, including that of Kumar Sangakkara, the world's top ranked batsman, first ball, to brilliant new ball bowling by Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad. By the time the day ended Jayawardene, with his 30th Test match century and what must surely rank as one of his finest, had seen his side to 289 for eight of which he personally made 168 unbeaten calm assured runs, reducing England to rags as the shadows lengthened, with poor hapless Monty Panesar making a hash of catches induced by the second new ball.
England, Jayawardene knows, have never made more than 250 on this ground. It was a jewel of an innings, a masterclass of unruffled technique, temperament and stamina over more than six hours in the sapping heat and humidity of Galle, since he arrived on a hat-trick to middle his first ball and most of the subsequent 289.
Is there a more sublime batsman than Jayawardene in his own environment? Has there ever been? Watching him bat is to see Jersey cream poured from a jug, or to feel the glow as an Islay single malt slips smoothly down the throat. It makes the game good to watch for its own sake. For a while, he batted with Dinesh Chandimal, the young thruster, the new kid on the block.
Here, starkly was the old and the contemporary, the young man, for all that he is a prodigious talent, possessed of an ugly bottom-poking-out stance and bat-strangling grip, a robust method and attitude atuned to the modern biff-it game, and set against the master – slender, willowy, deft, and balanced. Gossamer at the crease so that a strong breeze might blow him over. But there is a deadly sting too. Graeme Swann, Anderson and Panesar were all taken for a six, the strokes with the crack of a sniper rifle, and there were 20 boundaries, so that in case we had forgotten we recalled the subversive assassination of the Indian attack in the world cup final almost a year ago. It was not a faultless innings, in that he offered chances. On 64, one looped from his glove as Swann turned one sharply into him but Anderson, athletic at slip, could only get a finger tip to it, diving backwards as it cleared his head. Then, shortly after tea, when 90, he checked a drive against Anderson, who was not quite sharp enough in his follow-through to hold the head-high return catch: the next ball was sent searing through midwicket to add injury.
With the new ball, and Jayawardene long past his hundred, came a brace of misses by Panesar as first, on 147, the batsman hooked Anderson's bouncer and – let's be charitable – Panesar, at long leg, did not sight it properly in a low sun. Then five runs later the same fielder, at mid-on now, had too much time to reflect on his miss as a mighty swirler, from Broad, went towering towards him. If the first miss was unfortunate, the second, predicated on that, possessed an inevitability that meant it was watched through the fingers as if a horror movie. For Panesar, it was.
That last session, in which Sri Lanka managed 121 runs in 29 overs, of which Jayawardene scored 78, undid the grand work that England had managed until then. Before play Samit Patel was presented with his cap, and he was to make his mark with two wickets in three balls, albeit that there were more than 30 intervening overs between them. The seamers, Anderson and Broad, were wonderful with the new ball first thing, able to exploit the swing, some residual moisture in the pitch, and a hangover from the Asia Cup from which the Sri Lankans have only just returned. Lahiru Thirimanne was taken at second slip, Sangakkara edged a similar delivery to the keeper and when Tillakaratne Dilshan was caught at first slip, Sri Lanka were 15 for three and in trouble.
From this rubble, Jayawardene first laid the foundations and then built a monument, adding 52 for the fourth wicket with Thilan Samaraweera (unluckily run out as Anderson deflected a straight drive on to the stumps), 61 for the fifth with Chandimal who kitchen-sinked a couple of sixes and a brace of fours before gifting Patel his maiden wicket; and 42 for the sixth with his namesake Prasanna. Throughout, until a weary end, the England seamers were heroic, Anderson, in the process of taking three for 56, equalling the 252 Test wickets of another Lancastrian Brian Statham.
England's spinners had differing fortunes. Panesar, given a containing job, did it with mechanical efficiency, wicketless but bottling up an end, sending down maiden after maiden. Swann though, despite bowling considerably better than his 0 for 92 suggests, was more at the mercy of righthanders intent on getting after him and denting his confidence at this early the series. Patel, it is said, is in the side as much to provide a left-arm bulwark against this, as for his batting.
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