Battling England Undone By Murali's Late Burst

A tortuously tense fifth day saw England come within 20 minutes of securing a draw in the first Test. When Lasith Malinga forced a yorker between Matthew Hoggard's bat and boots the game was over, and England, all out for 261, were 88 runs behind.

That they had come that close at all - and with an hour to play they had four wickets in hand and two well-set batsmen at the crease - was due to Matt Prior and Ian Bell. Their partnership of 109 took up 44 overs of play, and gave England cause to think that they might escape from the match with a draw.

Both Prior and Bell played exceptionally well. Prior's 63, off 147 balls, was certainly one of his finest innings in an England shirt. He appeared accomplished and at ease throughout, defending well and occasionally striding out to strike a cover drive. Struck on the head by a bouncer from Dilhara Fernando, he batted on seemingly unflustered. Tellingly when he reached his fifty his runs had been divided equally between the leg- and off- sides.

He had joined Bell in the fourth over after lunch, when Ravi Bopara was lbw to Sanath Jayasuryia's arm ball after rattling off a quick 34 runs. At that point Bell had already been in for 37 balls, batting with apt caution in the circumstances. This was one of his most mature innings, especially given the oft noted disparity between the strength of his performances in the first innings of Tests in comparison to his weakness in the second.

Bell and Prior batted England through to the final session. What was most impressive about their play was the assurance with which they batted against Muttiah Muralitharan, both seemingly able to pick his deliveries with relative ease. The pair had taken the innings into the 84th over, seeing off four overs of the new ball, and made the draw the bookmakers' favorite result. At that point Muralitharan had figures of 30-10-80-0.

And then everything changed. Muralitharan took the new ball off Malinga and produced a spell of 5-2-5-3. Having been held at bay throughout the day, this was the true mark of one of history's greatest bowlers, able to produce a match-winning spell at the crucial moment, turning the new ball like a top on an unhelpful surface.

Prior was undone by a doosra that spun past his bat and clipped off stump. Bell was bowled in the next over by an off-spinner, and Ryan Sidebottom fell in the over after that, unluckily given out lbw despite a palpable inside edge. From 248 for six, England were now 253 for nine and the game was over.

England looked to have lost the match much earlier than that, defeat never seeming more imminent than when Paul Collingwood slapped a catch off Fernando to Kumar Sangakkara at short extra cover. That left England 90 for five in just the 20th over of the day.

Like Kevin Pietersen, Collingwood received criticism from some commentators for being overly aggressive. Unlike Pietersen, who was bowled for 18 by an ankle-high in-dipper that clipped his inside edge, Collingwood's dismissal was entirely avoidable. The overnight batsmen, Michael Vaughan and nightwatchman James Anderson, both fell during an outstanding opening spell by Chaminda Vaas.

Vaughan, who had scored the crucial runs when England had batted out the final day for a draw in England's Test at Kandy back in 2003, was caught behind while Anderson was clean bowled in Vaas's next over.

Sri Lanka have a 1-0 series lead then, and England will be hard-pushed to fight back into the series. The man-of-the-match award unsurprisingly went to Sangakkara for his 244 runs.

It was perhaps appropriate that Sri Lanka did win the game given that the match seemed to represent something of a watershed in their team's history. Jayasuriya has now played his last Test match, while Vaas has played his 100th, and then, of course, there was that large slice of history for Murali.