Cricket: Monty's Lords It in Field While England Seamers Toil

On a weirdly soporific day - the polar opposite of this fixture in last year's Ashes summer - England made hard work of putting away Sri Lanka on a flat track, despite having a mountain of runs to play with.

The tourists are still 176 short of making England bat again, with seven wickets in hand, so there is no reason to fret. But it might have been all over by now had Andrew Flintoff given his lone spinner the ball a little earlier. When Monty Panesar came on for the first time in the match - an over before tea on the third day - he turned it far enough to cause doubt. And, in two probing spells in the final session, he shifted Sri Lanka's gifted opener Upul Tharanga and his sturdy ally, Kumar Sangakkara.

Flintoff will have judged the surface was so benign that his best chance of breaking down Sri Lanka's quirky obduracy was to let his seamers use the heavy air, which they did with mixed results. And it made for some decidedly dull cricket. Sri Lanka had resumed under cloud at 91 for six, were bowled out in a session after some stubborn resistance, followed on 359 runs in the red and proceeded to hang around annoyingly on a sunny afternoon.

It was not that England bowled so badly; they seamed it about, generally kept a decent line, and induced a fair number of false shots. In between that, though, the Sri Lankans walloped the loose stuff to keep the score ticking along at three an over. Catchable chances went down, an easy run-out went begging after tea (Kevin Pietersen boneheadedly throwing to the wrong end with Sangakkara floundering in mid-pitch) and the urgency and passion that attended their work against the Australians last summer, not to mention the heroics against India towards the end of their winter tour, was missing.

Harsh? By their own standards, no. The days of being satisfied with competence rather than striving consistently for their 'A' game are gone, a truth they will be reminded of this summer against Pakistan and in November when they being the defence of the Ashes. The star of the first session was Matthew Hoggard, whose 200th wicket came when he cut through the gloom at 80mph with a good caught and bowled to get rid of Farveez Maharoof for 22.

In the next over Flintoff tempted Mahela Jayawardene to edge behind and, at 131 for eight, the lambs looked slaughtered. Tens run later, however, there was a spectacular drop by Andrew Strauss. Nuwan Kulasekara, coming in at number 10, edged a rising delivery, as number 10s tend to do, which hit Alastair Cook's shoulder and spooned behind him. Strauss clambered back, dived but caught his catching hand underneath him in landing and the ball tumbled out of his grasp.

Kulasekara went on to make 29, caught eventually without fuss by Strauss. There were diversions, most of them involving Panesar who, three days into his home Test debut, has become something of a folk hero. His every effort in the field was cheered. He went down for a regulation stop at mid-on, the ball rolled through his legs and he hared after it, blushing no doubt, to save the boundary. Soon enough, he was chasing it again. As the roar of encouragement grew, he hunted down the ball inches inside the Nursery End ropes, dived, kept it in play with a deft palm of the hand... then put his foot over the line in the act of returning it. Four runs, and much mirth.

While Panesar sweated over his chores in the field, Strauss grounded another one - this time a sitter at waist height at slip, giving Chaminda Vaas a life he took full advantage of. Dropped at two, he went on to score 31. These were not disastrous errors by Strauss - but who would have thought he would be outfielded by Panesar? When they batted a second time after lunch, Sri Lanka looked to be heading for a round of golf on Sunday when Jehan Mubarak wafted lazily at Hoggard, leaving far too much air between bat and pad, and was bowled, playing on, in the fifth over.

Thereafter, though, Tharanga and Sangakkara played with the freedom of condemned men. With nothing to lose, they hit beautifully through the ball, Tharanga especially, as the crowd grew impatient for a breakthrough. The action meandered rather than galloped and the press box was alerted to the roving eye of the cameraman who had already picked out a couple of elderly sleepers in the pavilion. The torpor seemed to spread on to the playing area.

Flintoff has proved a dynamic leader in Michael Vaughan's absence but he let things drift a little yesterday. The batsmen were now picking up easy singles and very much getting to grips with the seamers. When Tharanga put his knee to the turf and drove Liam Plunkett gloriously to cover, the argument for spin, if only to break the monotony, grew. And on came Paul Collingwood. With all due respect (and perhaps he should bowl more in any case), someone whose contribution with the ball in the six winter Tests totalled 13 overs in two spells for no wickets, ought not be called upon before a specialist bowler warming his hands at third man.

Two Tharanga fours off the captain - the second of them a sizzling thrash that would have taken Plunkett's hand off had he got near to it on the cover boundary - provided more evidence for the Panesar case. And so he arrived at the crease, to huge applause, at 3.35pm, 27 overs into the innings with Sri Lanka 89 for one. Straight away, from the Pavilion End, he turned one through Geraint Jones's legs for four byes. After tea, with the sun putting to sleep those who had not already drifted off, Monty got his man as Tharanga was caught behind for 52. He then ground out 12 overs for just 25, before giving way to the seamers.

Five overs from the end, he returned and again Jones took a nick for him, this time off Sangakkara, for 65, and Sri Lanka were back on Wobbly Street. Panesar ought to have had the nightwatchman Maharoof with the second last ball of the over, caught bat-pad by Flintoff, but was turned down. All in all, though, it was a good days work for the spinner - even if he clocked on late.