Sri Lanka gun for win after England follow-on

Sri Lanka, pressing for a 10th Test win in a row, forced England to follow on at Lord's on Saturday before the home side closed the third day on 53 without loss, still needing 227 runs to avoid an innings defeat.

Unheralded seamers Ruchira Perera, with two wickets in two balls, and Buddika Fernando, with two in three, engineered a collapse around the tea break.

England, replying to Sri Lanka's first innings of 555 for eight declared, lost their last seven wickets for 72 as they were dismissed for 275.

Batting again 280 runs behind, Marcus Trescothick (31 not out) and Michael Vaughan, undefeated on 20 after top-scoring in the first innings with 64, picked their way through 16.5 overs without major incident before bad light forced an early close.

If Sri Lanka's superiority was built on some sublime batting during the first two days fronted by Marvan Atapattu's 185 and Mahela Jayawardene's 107, their bowlers deserved equal praise for sticking to their task on a strip still favouring the batsmen.

Deprived of injured off-spinner and regular match-winner Muttiah Muralitharan for at least the first two games of the three-Test series, the attack did not wilt throughout the day, even when England looked to be edging towards safety on 203 for three.

It was then that left-armer Perera induced Vaughan, after four hours of defiance, to top-edge a lazy hook to fine leg, where Nuwan Zoysa brushed off a collision with a team mate to take the catch.

SHUFFLING ACROSS

Next ball Graham Thorpe fell lbw for 27, shuffling across his stumps.

England, who had dropped three straightforward catches during the Sri Lankan innings, compounded their problems soon after as Crawley called for an impossible single to point and substitute fielder Upul Chandana threw down the stumps with Alec Stewart well short of his ground.

He was replaced by giant all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who opened his innings with three fours before edging behind a short delivery from Fernando. Dominic Cork following immediately in similar fashion to make it 237 for eight as the meltdown continued.

A ninth-wicket stand of 30 between John Crawley and Andy Caddick only delayed the inevitable. Wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara caught them both to finish with five catches.

REMARKABLE COLLAPSE

The collapse was all the more remarkable since it was engineered by two change bowlers with minimal experience, while strike bowler Chaminda Vaas, needing four more victims to reach 200 Test wickets, could only manage one for 51.

Fernando, in his sixth Test, ended with three for 83 and Perera, in his seventh, three for 48. Both were averaging more than 40 per wicket in Tests before the game.

England's only first-innings high point after resuming on 27 for one had come during a third-wicket stand of 106, scored at around five an over between Vaughan and Nasser Hussain.

Skipper Hussain, refusing to retreat into his shell, made an enterprising 57, including 44 in boundaries.

He cracked three fours in an over off Zoysa just before lunch and added 11 off Fernando's first six balls immediately afterwards as he reached his half-century off 59 deliveries.

But he was caught behind after a two-hour stay to give left-arm pace bowler Zoysa his second wicket with the score on 149 for three.

Sri Lanka came to England after whitewashing West Indies and Zimbabwe 3-0 and beating Pakistan in the Asian Cricket Championship final. England have not won a series for a year.

Scorecard

Mail Cricket Editor