England Pegged Back on a Day of Ifs and Buts

England are handily placed, no more than that. They might have been mightily placed. Two freakish dismissals, allied to a timid innings from Ian Bell, and at least one dodgy umpiring decision on a sultry Colombo afternoon punctured England's momentum. They are still right in the game, but they are not dominating it. On another day they might have been.

The first dismissal, that of Michael Vaughan, was plain unlucky. Vaughan had batted silkily after winning the toss and opting to bat. Not since England's tour of Australia in 2002-03 have we witnessed such fluency. The cover-drive purred to the boundary and that dismissive, trademark pull shot was unfurled after Dilhara Fernando had dropped a shade short. Moreover Muttiah Muralitharan was causing, by his standards, few problems. Vaughan had just clipped him through midwicket and cut him imperiously to the cover boundary when his luck ran out.

Vaughan spied another shortish delivery and off the meat of the bat he flicked the ball to the on-side. It hit Jehan Mubarak at short leg somewhere near the box and then trickled downwards before lodging between his legs around the knee region. Carefully, jubilantly, Mubarak extricated the ball - the first time he had made use of his hands in this manoeuvre - and a stunned Vaughan had to drag himself from the crease.

Thereafter the impetus of the innings was gone. Given how positive Ian Bell had been in his first knock at Kandy, it was a surprise that he should bat so tepidly. England may have been 150 for one but they already seemed in survival mode. After all that reconnaissance it was galling when Bell was taken - in more conventional style- at forward short leg just after tea. Next came the wicket that set the arguments rolling.

Kevin Pietersen was/is the one man - besides the rejuvenated Vaughan - who might take the Sri Lankan attack apart. Here he was still bedding in when he edged a full-length delivery from Chaminda Vaas towards the slip-cordon. Chamara Silva dived to his left, the ball bobbled from his left hand, not once, but twice before the ever-alert Kumar Sangakkara, who was at first slip, snatched it.

The umpires conferred before Daryl Harper raised his finger. Pietersen reluctantly set off for the pavilion, but stalled after remonstrations from the English dressing room. This had happened to Pietersen before - at Lord's against India last summer. On that occasion the third umpire was eventually summoned by the on-field umpires. Here the umpires after another conference stuck with their original decision. Harper raised his finger again.

So the replays were studied time and time again. As ever the cameras cast doubt, suggesting that the ball might have touched the ground when Silva made his first attempt to make the catch. Had it been referred to the third umpire Pietersen would have been reprieved but the umpires are now directed only to refer this sort of decision if their line of sight has been impeded. Past experience has taught us that the camera can lie. The naked eye suggested that Pietersen was legitimately caught, slow motion otherwise. Afterwards Michael Vaughan expressed his disappointment. He thought that the decision should have been referred.

While the arguments raged, Cook plodded on nobly. His was a gutsy effort in the light of his two failures in Kandy but he could not quite make it to the close. He was adjudged lbw by umpire Harper to Malinga, who had just taken the second new ball. This time there was little doubt from the replays. The ball looked destined to miss Cook's leg stump. All the while Paul Collingwood remained calm and productive; Matthew Prior hung on alongside impressively as dark clouds amassed. Meanwhile the mood in the English dressing room was equally dark. The challenge now for the England hierarchy was to ensure their players focussed on the days ahead rather than their grievances on a taut first day.