Harmison Keeps England in Contention for Series Draw

In the end it was a reasonable day for England, but no more than that. Needing to win the emotionally charged third Test at Galle to square the series and avoid a kick-in-the-backside slump from No2 in the rankings to No5, they took four Sri Lankan wickets on a weather-shortened first day after Michael Vaughan had won the toss and opted to bowl first. Such was the lavish movement with the new ball that England's position might have been better. But then, with Sri Lanka on 132 for two at tea, it could also have been worse. Weather permitting, they can still head home for Christmas with a creditable 1-1 draw.

England's hero, if that is not overstating the case on a quiet day limited to 55 overs, was Steve Harmison. After bowling with a lot of heart and little luck on Colombo's shirtfront to take 3 for 111, he produced a probing spell after tea to answer his captain's plea for wickets and perhaps even the jibes of those critics who reckoned he was not worth his place on this tour.

In a six-over burst yielding just four runs, he hurried Kumar Sangakkara, looking as elegantly comfortable as ever on 46, into a top-edged pull to deep square-leg, where Monty Panesar jubilantly held on to a straightforward catch, then had Chamara Silva caught at first slip by Ian Bell to end a tortured 26-ball innings that brought just a single.

Earlier in the day, Harmison was fortunate to remove Upul Tharanga lbw with a ball that, unnoticed by the increasingly fallible Daryl Harper, pitched just outside leg-stump. But since he had already had Tharanga badly missed at second slip by Paul Collingwood, Harmison will feel the wicket was his moral right. Close-of-play figures of 13-2-28-3 did not flatter him.

England's other success also came courtesy of an iffy leg-before decision when Asad Rauf upheld Ryan Sidebottom's appeal against Michael Vandort - the ball was probably going over the top - in the 11th over of the day. Tharanga followed four overs later, before Matthew Hoggard and the entire team went up for a convincing shout for caught-behind against Sangakkara when he had just two.

Harper issued Hoggard with a stern "not out", but replays revealed a noise, the Snickometer wobbled as ball passed bat, and England appeared hard done by. Whether the noise was a creaky bat handle or a very thin edge was unclear, but the decision deflated England. Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene reached lunch with a flurry of counter-attacking boundaries, then eased their way through a 26-over middle session to add 61 more runs without being parted.

The writing, it seemed, was on the wall for England. But they came out after the break with a renewed discipline and earned two wickets by applying pressure, Michael Vaughan's favorite noun. Just 15 runs came in the 11 overs that were possible before bad light closed in, and only Jayawardene's painstaking half-century lifted the local gloom.

For England, it was a crucial mini-session after they had blown the chance to repeat their new-ball heroics at Kandy on the first morning of the series. Conditions cried out for some classically English swing bowling on and around off-stump after play had started two hours late following a downpour on Monday, but the bowlers strayed too often to leg and Sri Lanka were on the verge of making them pay. Then Harmison found his groove.