Cook and rain help England to force a draw

Chris Dhambarage reporting from Galle

Opener Alastair Cook recorded the first century of the series as England forced a draw to the third and final Test match against Sri Lanka at the reconstructed Galle International Stadium yesterday.

But Sri Lanka won the series 1-0 after having won the opening Test match at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy. The second Test at the SSC ground ended in a draw. Sri Lanka also moved into the second place of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Championship Team Rankings.

England reached 251 for six wickets in their second innings after been forced to follow on when heavy rain brought an end to the game following another stoppage for more than one hour shortly after lunch. Two heavy afternoon showers foiled Sri Lanka's attempts to seal a 2-0 series victory, the second of which came shortly after Cook was dismissed for 118.

Alastair Cook was certainly England's saviour as he hit a patient 118 while occupying the crease for a marathon 384 minutes facing 285 deliveries with a dozen of boundaries.

Cook and wicket keeper Mathew Prioir put on a stubborn fifty runs for the sixth wicket to frustrate the Sri Lankan bowlers while batting under tremendous pressure.

Earlier ace spinner Muttiah Muralitharan caused another dramatic England collapse on the final morning as three wickets tumbled in just four deliveries to leave them struggling on 202 for 5 at lunch.

Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen had batted smoothly as England were making positive strides towards saving the game.

But in the space of an over everything changed after Muralitharan won an interesting battle with Pietersen.

The off spinner made the initial break through of the morning while removing Ian Bell with a delivery which kept very low to hit the off stump. Cook and Pietersen had responded well by adding a useful 72 runs. Pieterson also completed one thousand runs for the current year during his innings.

Two balls later, Paul Collingwood failed to read a doosra, lurched forward, missed the ball entirely and was stumped by Prasanna Jayawardene for a duck.

Then in Muralitharan's sixth ball of the over new batsman Ravi Bopara succumbed to a dreadful run out. The Essex all-rounder thought his edge had beaten Mahela Jayawardene at slip so set off for a run but it had not and his scramble back to the crease was in vain.

Sri Lanka's captain collected the ball and returned it in one movement, allowing wicket keeper Jayawardene to whip off the bails.

England resumed on 102-1 and made a confident start to the day under blue skies and needed to occupy the crease for as long as eight hours to save the Test. But Sri Lanka should have struck in the third over when wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardene put down Cook when the batsman was on 54, from the bowling of Lasith Malinga.

England had brought up their 200 in impressive fashion, with Cook, who turns 23 on Christmas Day, anchoring the innings. Sri Lanka managed just one wicket in the opening couple of hours but Kevin Pietersen fell into the home side's trap to trigger a rapid decline to 202 for five at the interval.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena said that he is quite satisfied with a one nil result especially after a disappointing series in Australia where they lost both Test matches.

He said that the team was looking forward to win the series by two games to nil but unfortunately the bad weather was a stumbling block.

Jayawardena said that Alastair Cook batted well but they were hoping to pick up wickets at the other end.

We succeeded in getting three successive wickets, and we got more confidence and had a feeling that we could pull off the game but unfortunately the weather disrupted our plans and shattered our hopes.

But overall I am satisfied with the team performance and if we put in more effort we are capable of performing even better. The boys will be getting a good week's break and some of them will be on the move when the provincial tournament gets underway shortly.

After that we will be preparing for the coming Australian tour with more confidence. Meanwhile England captain Michael Vaughan said that Sri Lanka fully deserved their 1-0 Test series win.

"Throughout the whole series we have been beaten by a better team. Sri Lanka have been better in all the skills. "The heavens have helped us get a draw but to be brutally honest it has saved us from a 2-0 defeat," said Vaughan.

"I can't fault the effort of the team but there are a few areas of expertise where we have to improve," he said. "We have to regroup and go to New Zealand and start winning some Test matches again. We have enough talent and I am sure we can put it right in 2008."

SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS
499-8 declared (M. Jayawardene 213 not out)
ENGLAND - 1ST INNINGS
81 (C. Vaas 4-28)
ENGLAND - 2ND INNINGS
A. Cook c P.Jayawardene b Welegedera	 118
M. Vaughan c M.Jayawardene b Welegedera	  24
I. Bell b Muralitharan			  34
K. Pietersen
c M.Jayawardene b Muralitharan	 	  30
P. Collingwood
st P.Jayawardene b Muralitharan		   0
R. Bopara run out	 		   0
M. Prior not out	 		  19
R. Sidebottom not out	  		   0
Extras (b-6, lb-5, w-1, nb-14)	 	  26
TOTAL (six wickets,95 overs)		 251

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-67, 2-128, 3-200, 4-200, 5-200, 6-250
BOWLING: Muralitharan 38-8-91-3 (8-nb), Vaas 18-7-37-0, (2-nb), 
Malinga 20-3-42-0 (3-nb), Welegedera 14-1-59-2 (1-nb,1-w), 
Dilshan 3-1-8-0, Silva 2-1-3-0.
DID NOT BAT: M. Hoggard, S. Harmison, M. Panesar. Match drawn.
Sri Lanka win series 1-0.