Trescothick leads England fightback

Marcus Trescothick hit his maiden Test century to lead England's battle to avoid the follow-on against Sri Lanka on the third day of the first Test on Saturday.

Opener Trescothick's unbeaten 119 guided the touring team from their overnight 27 without loss to 202 for four at the close in reply to Sri Lanka's first innings of 470 for five declared.

Trescothick reached three figures from 265 deliveries, hit 12 fours, and beat his previous highest in Tests of 78 against West Indies in the fifth Test at The Oval last year.

The Somerset left-hander held firm while England slipped from 83 without loss to 117 for three, left-arm paceman Chaminda Vaas taking the key wicket of Michael Athereton for 33 and off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan snapping up captain Nasser Hussain (3) and Graham Thorpe (7).

Trescothick then put on 80 for the fourth wicket with Alec Stewart, who resisted for 140 minutes for 19 before he was given out lbw to Sanath Jayasuriya's left-arm spin shortly before the end of the day.

England will start the fourth day on Sunday needing 69 more to avoid the follow-on.

Scoreboard

Sri Lanka (1st innings): 470-5 decl (Marvan Atapattu 201 not out, Aravinda de Silva 106, Mahela Jayawardene 61, Kumar Sangakkara 58).

England (1st innings): (overnight 27-0)
M.Atherton lbw b Vaas 33
M.Trescothick not out 119
N.Hussain lbw b Muralitharan 3
G.Thorpe c Dilshan b Muralitharan 7
A.Stewart lbw b Jayasuriya 19
R.Croft not out 0
Extras (B2, LB2, NB17) 21
Total (for four wickets, 106 overs) 202
Fall of wickets: 1-83, 2-93, 3-117, 4-197
To bat: G.Hick, C.White, A.Giles, A.Caddick, D.Gough. Bowling : Vaas 18-5-34-1 (nb-1), Muralitharan 41-10-56-2 (nb-8), Dharmasena 22-6-51-0 (nb-6), Fernando 2-0-10-0 (nb-2), Jayasuriya 20-5-42-1, de Silva 3-2-5-0

Mail Cricket Editor