The Galle Test: Sri Lanka v England, Day 1

After a disastrous tour of the United Arab Emirates, next up for England was a trip to one of the toughest places to tour, Sri Lanka. England will return in September for the Twenty20 World Cup, but for now, in the heat and humidity of Galle, Sri Lanka and England play one of those annoying two Test series.

England, still number one after the Middle East humiliation thanks to the weather of New Zealand, include three spinners in their line up, handing a Test debut to Samit Patel at the expense of Eoin Morgan. Sri Lanka have Mahela Jayawardene back at the helm and after having played so much limited overs cricket for the past three months, it'll be interesting to see how their players adapt back to the longer format.

In the scenic ground of the Galle International Stadium ("expertly recreated" in my back garden), the scene of England's horrendous 81 all out back in 2007. By mentioning that, I've probably tempted some horrific fate for when England bat, but that's a matter for a different day. Here's day one in Galle, in the format that made a delivery man look weirdly at me as he appeared in my back garden.

3rd ODI: England vs Sri Lanka

After Cook decided to field at Headingley after winning the toss, he decided he'd bat first at Lord's. Here's what happened. 

England's first wicket falls to Malinga in the 6th, who along with Mathews and Kulasekara have managed to control a subdued England in the first powerplay.  

Kieswetter is deceived by a Malinga slower ball and he can only chip it up in the air...

To Quackmal, who catches it. England are 18-1. 

Cook, on 15 at the time, gets a large dollop of luck as he edges Kulasekara to Jayawardene at slip...

Only to see Jaywardene spill the chance. It is an enormous let off for Cook and for England.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your view) for England, Trott decides to test the Sri Lankan fielders again, this time off Quackmal.

Trott mistimes a drive and is caught by the captain, Dilshan. Trott scores 2 from 12 deliveries and the knives are being sharpened. England are 30-2.

Pietersen comes in and, seemingly bored of looking at Mike Atherton holding up a picture of Eeyore and pointing at Cook, takes a liking to Quackmal. He hits a four straight down the ground...

Followed by another one that is horrendously misfielded by the captain Dilshan. 

This time definitely unfortunately for England, KP's innings came to an end as he decided to take on Mendis.

He topped edge a sweep...

And was caught in the deep by Randiv. It was the third time in the series that KP had been dismissed by Mendis. 

Once again, a lot was reliant on Eoin Morgan to up the run rate. Cook was anchoring the other end and hoping that his team mates could perform to the best of their ability. Morgan got off the mark with a pull for four that we've all become used to...

But soon succumbed LBW to Mendis.

85-4 and England are in trouble.

Cook reaches his 50 with a tickle down to fine leg for four.

England take the batting Powerplay in the hope it inspires some more runs.

Instead, he upper cuts Quackmal straight to third man...

Where he is caught comfortably by Kulasekara. 157-5.

Cook reaches his century with a single off Randiv.

Off comes the helmet and Cook reaches his second ODI century, his first as captain. 

Cook's innings soon comes to an end though, as he calls Bresnan through for a single to a ball that went through to Sangakkara...

He gambles on Sanga's ability to hit the stumps, presumably having seen the last over down at Bristol ...

... And he's run out for 119. England are 232-6 and with Sri Lanka's batting line up, it is nowhere near enough.

Broad comes in before Swann, but Bresnan is soon bowled by Malinga. He hits the ball, but it hits his leg...

Then his other leg...

And then rolls onto the stumps and dislodges the bails. It's a strange dismissal, but it's still a wicket and England are 234-7.

Swann finishes the England innings in a flourish. 

He hits England's first six of the innings in the 50th over. He then follows it up with a streaky four, bringing England's total to 246-7. It's well below par, so England's bowlers will have to perform out of this world to defend it on a ground like Lord's...

Bresnan gets the wicket of Dilshan with a good delivery. He's bowled off stump and Sri Lanka are 21-1.

But, like at Headingley, it's the Jaywardene show. Only his co-star is different, with the young Chandimal taking Sangakkara's place.

Jaywardene reaches a 50 with a single off Broad. 

After his Twenty20 innings, he's been superb for Sri Lanka. 

Jayawardene and Chandimal reach a 100 partnership, but it soon ends as Mahela chases a (very) wide one from Jade Dernbach. 

It goes straight to Eoin Morgan and Sri Lanka are 133-2. It's a tame end to another fabulous innings.

Meanwhile, Chandimal reaches a 50 with a single too. Broad had earlier given him a torrid time with bouncers, so to reach a half-century is a moral victory for him.

Swann, probably England's best bowler of the series so far, takes the wicket of Sangakkara.

He hits it straight to Morgan and it gives England a bit of very, very slender hope. 

Kandamby comes in and survives one LBW shout from Swann, before departing to  this shout.

Sri Lanka are 230-4. And then begins possibly the craziest bit of cricket to be seen in limited overs this summer thus far.

This crazy bit of cricket sees Angelo Mathews, aware that his partner, Chandimal, is desperate for a century at Lord's and Sri Lanka have very few runs left to play with, play out a maiden off Dernbach. 

Singles are available, but Mathews ignores the angry faces on the Sri Lankan balcony...

And sends Chandimal back. If Chandimal gets out, then he's going to look very, very silly.

But the worries are only from the press box and watching crowd, as Chandimal goes to his century in style...

He smacks a six off Bresnan and reaches a deserved century.

Unfortunately for him, the talk after the game will be about how he reached it, rather than the match winning part he played.

The match ends with a four from Chandimal off Anderson. 

Sri Lanka win by 6 wickets and Chandimal celebrates his place in history at Lord's. Mathews finishes with 1 from 21. Nasser Hussain is quoted as saying that "He likes to give it a whack." I believe it's classes as 'The Jonathan Trott' kind of whack. 

That's the last duck cricket blog for a week as I'm off on holiday today, but I'm recording the highlights of the 4th and 5th ODIs, so when I get home I'll play catch up! Can England bounce back? I doubt it, but these are famous last words. Will Mike Atherton visit Blackpool when the series heads up to Lancashire and bring a real donkey to Old Trafford? Probably not. Will England make some changes? I hope so.

See you in a week!