England's battle has long way to go

The sight of Darren Gough sending down some glorified off-spin in mid-afternoon underlined England's mounting desperation while spinner Giles was later reduced to bowling almost exclusively outside leg stump in an attempt to keep the run-rate in check.

To their credit, Hussain's men never looked like throwing in the towel, even though the bits and pieces of luck they needed to go their way went almost exclusively in Sri Lanka's direction.

Gough, one of the world's fastest bowlers, throttled back by more than 20mph midway through the afternoon in an attempt to save energy and pose the batsmen a few different problems.

But not even that worked as third-wicket pair Atapattu and de Silva extended their overnight stand of 111 to 230 under another burning sun before being parted.

Relief for England, when it came, was by way of a run-out.

De Silva, who received the benefit of the doubt on 48 yesterday after diving full length to make his ground, had no chance of escaping shortly after completing his 19th Test century. Atapattu drove Giles to mid-off and ran almost instantly, only to find that de Silva had barely moved a muscle.

The non-striker belatedly made a dash for safety but was still well short when Gough, despite an initial fumble, returned to the keeper's end.

Gough, having reduced his run-up to about eight paces, got through four overs off-cutters and turned several deliveries quite sharply into the right-handers. But nothing went England's way until de Silva helped out.

Even then, there was little respite as Atapattu strode on and on and Jayawardene stepped up the pace after a couple of close shaves.

Still, he was clearly intent on making the most of any good fortune and responding to Giles's probing by hitting him for six over long-on.

England saw what a wonderfully gifted player he is during their acrimonious one-day contest in Adelaide two years ago. It is now remembered mainly for Muralitharan being no-balled for throwing and several bust-ups on the field, but Jayawardene's match-winning century was a work of real beauty.

Here, he improvised splendidly against Giles's ultra-defensive line, first reverse sweeping and then, when his eye was properly in, reverse pulling.

Jayawardene's 61 occupied only 94 balls and it needed a nifty piece of footwork from Graham Thorpe to remove him. The former England schoolboy footballer nipped in from an off-side position to hit the stumps with a right-footer from close range as the batsmen tried to pinch a quick single.

Any thoughts that Sri Lanka might look for something like 600 by batting into the third day evaporated when Chaminda Vaas was promoted in search of rapid runs.

The ploy did not work because the left-hander soon hoisted a towering catch to Craig White at long-off. By then, though, Atapattu had reached 200 and the declaration was only moments away.