England survive, again!

A master-class in concentration from captain Michael Vaughan helped England to defy the odds and Muttiah Muralitharan for the second time in 8 days and secure another draw.

The target of 368 was only notional, and never likely to be threatened, as England batted through 104 overs whilst scoring only 196 runs, but more importantly remaining with 3 wickets intact when play was finally called off.

The Sri Lankan's desperately needed an early breakthrough if they were to seize the game and press for victory, and they got it with only the 4th ball of the day, as Nasser Hussain edged Chaminda Vaas, and Kumar Sangakkara pulled off a fine catch.

Enter Graeme Thorpe, the key man in the middle order, and he proceeded to play a perfect innings for the circumstances, although he was more than a little fortunate not to be given out when on 27 off the bowling of Sanath Jayasuriya.

The left-hand, right-hand combination stood firm, and although there weren't too many loose balls, those that were delivered were dealt with well.

Lunch was taken with the score on 167-3, another 201 runs for an unlikely win, but considering the 38 overs in the session had gone for 78 runs, there was no danger of loss to Sri Lanka.

This lack of danger made Hashan Tillekeratne's field placings all the more bizarre, as he seemed more interested in preventing boundaries than taking wickets.

A wicket did fall immediately after lunch, in the first over in fact, but TV replays showed that Thorpe was almost 6 inches away from hitting the ball that got him out caught by Sangakkara off Muralitharan. Thorpe had made a valuable 41 runs, but more importantly he'd used up 132 balls.

Paul Collingwood replaced him in the middle, and he continued his very impressive start to Test Cricket with a dogged hour and a half of resistance. His innings was however marred by an unfortunate confrontation between Sangakkara and umpire Daryl Harper after the latter had turned down an appeal against Collingwood. It appears that some comments were uttered by the Sri Lankan, and these were picked up by the stump microphone. Between overs, Harper was made aware of this, and he walked down the pitch to have a strong word with the wicket-keeper. After match referee Clive Lloyd's comments following the unsavoury incident from Day 2 of the game, one wonders if we've heard the last of this one.

Tillekeratne continued to baffle onlookers by refusing to take the new ball, and he got some reward when Collingwood was caught by Mahela Jayawardene off Kumar Dharmasena. The score was 208-5 at this stage, and with 20 minutes or so to go till tea, the much-maligned Andrew Flintoff made his entrance.

He batted with considerable maturity and restraint till the interval, being happy to face Muralitharan and play sensibly.

Tea came at 216-5, with Vaughan on 97 (after 50 on the 4th evening, he'd now batted well over 4 hours for just 47 runs, and in the entire second session, he scored just 16 runs) and the draw was looking increasingly likely.

Vaughan finally reached his century in the over after Tea, his first whilst leading England, and certainly one of the best rearguard knocks in recent years.

Flintoff started to look a bit more positive after the break, and hit a couple of boundaries, but inevitably he then got out, trapped leg before wicket by Muralitharan for 19 at a time when discretion was definitely the name of the game.

With under-fire Chris Read in next, Sri Lanka sniffed an opportunity, and the opportunity became far bigger 6 overs later, when Vaughan was finally dismissed by Muralitharan, a catch for Tillekeratne Dilshan. 25 overs were remaining, and the tail was exposed.

Amazingly, no matter what he tried, the breakthrough wasn't forthcoming, as Read and Gareth Batty replicated the defence of the First Test, even when the New Ball was finally taken after 121 overs.

The final hour with a minimum of 15 overs actually saw 19 bowled, but there would be no denying England the draw, Read finishing unbeaten on 18 from 91 balls, and Batty on 25 from 74 balls.

Muttiah Muralitharan had the astonishing final day figures of 44-24-44-3, a great effort, but in the end a fruitless one.

Posted by Marc