England need 94 for a victory that would draw the series and protect their No. 1 Test ranking in the process after dismissing Sri Lanka for 278 a few minutes before lunch on the final day. Sri Lanka, six down overnight, lost three wickets in a rush, but Angelo Mathews countered briefly to turn an overnight lead of 33 into something a little more substantial.
In the England dressing room, it was assuredly not the time for an anecdote about how they were bowled out for 72 in pursuit of 145 on a turning pitch against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi little more than two months ago. Along the corridor, Sri Lanka will have been chatting about little else.
Sri Lanka’s chief tormenter was Graeme Swann who had rolled in, sunglasses not quite disguising scampish intent, to turn the game with two wickets in the penultimate over of the fourth day. He spun the ball viciously at times on a pitch that, for him at least, finally had become the spin bowler’s minefield that had long been predicted.
Samit Patel also chipped in with his first Test wicket when Rangana Herath anticipated Swann-like turn, found Patel-like turn instead and offered the simplest of chances to James Anderson at slip.
For Sri Lanka, the onus rested once more on Mahela Jayawardene. Swann, who took 6 for 106 to finish with ten wickets in the match, finally removed him with an excellent ball which turned and bounced to hit the glove and lob easily to Alastair Cook, plunging forward at short leg. It was the end of a polished defensive innings – 64 from 191 balls with only four boundaries.
Jayawardene has made 354 runs in four innings with two centuries and his stock has rarely been higher. It was easy to carp that Sri Lanka had not helped themselves by a scoring rate not much above two an over, but only Kevin Pietersen, whose rapid century had created the time in which England could win the game, had played with any panache on this pitch and to try to ape Pietersen in that mood would be to fly too close to the sun.
Two overs later and another Jayawardene followed, this time Prasanna, coming in two places lower at No. 9 thanks to Sri Lanka’s recourse to nightwatchmen on the previous two evenings. It was a briefly unimpressive stay, ended when he tried to sweep and was bowled around his legs.
Mathews’ survival owed much to a calamitous morning for Cook at short leg. Three times in five overs Swann had expectations of dismissing Mathews to a nudge to short leg, but Cook failed to cling to two low chances and then a third fell wide of him as Swann looked as dangerous as at any time on England’s winter tours.
There was further frustration for England, too, when Mahela Jayawardene, on 58, was adjudged lbw by umpire Asad Rauf only for the decision to be overturned on review when the TV umpire, Rod Tucker, spotted an inside edge.
As wickets fell, Mathews eventually had little choice but to formulate an attacking response. He lofted Tim Bresnan down the ground, reverse-swept Swann and muscled Patel over mid-on, but an erratic surface betrayed him as Steven Finn made one stick in the surface and Mathews, intent upon advancing to drive, could only chip uncomfortably into the leg side where Andrew Strauss took the catch.
Source : Cricinfo
