When England required someone to bat for their existence in this match and series, it was Graham Thorpe, once again, who responded by biffing the young tearaway fast bowler Dilhara Fernando for three successive boundaries to finished with an unbeaten half-century.

It kept his side not just in touch with Sri Lanka's modest first-innings total of 241 but, they would have felt last night, a realistic prospect of a first-innings lead, even one of substance should they survive the new ball which was due in three overs.

Satisfaction would have been tempered, though, by the almost certain prospect of going into the one-day series without Nasser Hussain. The England captain had opted to go into the game carrying a groin injury collected during the second Test in Kandy and aggravated it in making an unwise sliding tackle on the ball while fielding on the first day here.

Yesterday Hussain was in obvious distress and completed his 37-minute innings with Mike Atherton acting as runner. It is hard to see how he can play any further fielding part in this match.

England are able to resume this morning on 175 for four, with Thorpe, after three hours first of aggression and then of diligence, on 71. With him was Michael Vaughan, who had batted for more than two hours for his 26, the pair having added 84 for the fifth wicket in 42 overs after the first four wickets had fallen for 91.

In the morning England had taken a little less than 40 minutes to take the remaining three Sri Lankan wickets, one of them, Fernando, to Robert Croft in the day's third over. His final figures of four for 56 were well deserved.

The remaining job of cleaning up went to Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and the new ball, neither Hettiarachchi nor Muralitharan offering more than token resistance. Multiskilling is all very well but tailenders were always a little bonus for the fast bowlers as reward for their effort. Happily, in Sri Lanka anyway, those days are returning.