Murali frustrated as Vaughan digs in deep

Vaughan cannot do anything about the toss, except to assume he and England are bound to get lucky sooner or later.

They have lost five calls in a row over here, going back to the Test series of 2001, and Vaughan himself is showing a one in eight success rate with the coin since replacing Nasser Hussain as captain last summer. But, regardless of whether England are given the chance to bat first on Thursday, nothing can stop them fielding five front-line bowlers. Nothing except a fear of coming unstuck with the bat. Sri Lanka, it is clear, are scared stiff of being beaten.

If not, how does anyone explain their decision to accept an offer for bad light on the third evening here when they were sitting pretty? And who can come up with another reason for their negative field placings yesterday.

Sri Lanka have Plan A (score as many runs as possible and then hope Muralitharan can bowl out the opposition twice) and no Plan B. It's not a bad strategy, of course, because anything is possible with Murali. But even magicians run out of new spells.

Sri Lanka's super-spinner had an ice pack clamped to his right, bowling shoulder before the start of the Second Test. After wheeling his way through nearly 100 overs here it would be remarkable if Murali wasn't now feeling sore.

"The important thing is that we are making him work hard for his wickets and making him bowl a hell of a lot of overs," said Vaughan, who finally succumbed to the Kandy man after registering his first century as captain. "We are just trying to wear him down."

By yesterday evening, with England 285 for seven, Murali looked worn out. Regardless of whether he recovers by Thursday, every one of Vaughan's players must now be feeling more confident.

Playing another bowler, such as Jimmy Anderson, in place of extra batsman Paul Collingwood could be the calculated gamble that transforms England from survivors into winners.