Lord's- England vs Sri Lanka- fifth day- a possibly exciting if England could get a move on and score quickly to see if they could enduce another Cardiff-esqe collapse.
England resumed 149-2 with Alistair Cook and Kevin Pietersen batting. They started brightly enough mainly thanks to the continuous no-balling from Suranga Lakmal and Chanaka Welegedara. 48 runs came from the first eight overs and a big total and declaration looked likely. KP was scratchy but was scoring runs but these dried up with the introduction of Rangana Herath at the Nursery End who bowled a tight line.
The partnership passed 100 and then Herath stuck with an unplayable ball which gripped and spun from leg past Pietersen's forward jab and onto the off stump to bowl him for 72. This brought Ian Bell in who promptly smashed 15 off the last over before lunch bowled by Dilhara Fernando to leave England 260-3. Cook, mysteriously, had only scored 22 in the whole session which was odd given the position of the match.
After lunch, both batsmen started to go for more shots as the score raced past 300, helped out by poor fielding as Bell was dropped at long off. Cook then reached his 18th test 100 with a four before being stumped for the first time in first-class cricket for 106 off Herath. A collapse then ensued as quick runs were the order of the day as Eoin Morgan smacked one four before being caught at mid off. Matt Prior then came in and after a mix up with Bell was run out from a direct hit from Prasanna Jayawardene. Bell then reached his fifty off 40 balls before reverse paddling a four of Herath before Fernando got rid of Broad caught behind at which point the declaration came at 335-7, leaving Sri Lanka needing 343 off 59 overs, or just not to collapse to defeat.
With Dilshan injured, Sangakkara opened the batting with Tharanga Paranavitana. Sanga hit two fours off Chris Tremlett before carving one to point where Morgan took the catch, a collapse may ensue perhaps? Mahela Jayawardene saw things through to tea.
England came out on full attack but they failed to dislodge the pair, until Broad induced a poor shot from Jayawardene who was well caught by Pietersen to his left at fourth slip. This kept things interesting and England could have had another wicket but Thilan Samaraweera reviewed an lbw shout by Graeme Swann that wasn't ever going to hit the stumps.
Jonathon Trott proved an unlikely success when he came on to bowl and in his 2nd over, Paranavitana was stuck in line and after a long, pleading, appeal was given out, he reviewed it, but was sent packing for 44, a grittyeffort when the team needed it.
After that the game ground towards a draw and apart from a five wides ball from Steve Finn and a one-minute over from KP the draw was confirmed just after 6pm with Sri Lanka 127-3.
The unlikely moment of the day came after Prior was run out, he stormed into the dressing room and a few seconds later there was a crash of glass as a dressing room window was broken. Prior had to apologise to the members before England went out to field and an ECB statement first said it was his glove that broke the window before eventually admitting it was his bat.
