Aaargh, Strauss drops his 3rd catch of the match - he missed Jaywardene at slip, an easy chance.

SL are now at 242-3. Maharoof is only a night-watchman and he's scored 37, he's becoming a bit of a pain.

England finally get rid of Maharoof, the night-watchman has scored 59. SL now on 291-4.

England really need to knock over 2 more before tea

JonnyM wrote:

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Out of interest, once Gilo returns from injury who do you think should be picked as the England spinner ? Gilo gives more depth to the batting and is a dependable and consistent performer aswell as an Ashes hero. However, Panesar actually spins the ball.

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I say Panesar. His bolwing is the future and his batting will imporve. Also, he's a bowler and the top 7 should do their jobs properly then he wouldn't have to perform with the bat so often

At lunch Sl are at 428-8.

Play was delayed by 20min this morning and when it got underway Kapugdera added 5 to his overnight score and rode his luck for an hour [including yet another dropped slip catch] until Flintoff eventually snared him for 10 and Geraint Jones took the catch.

Dilshan was batting superbly and frustrated England's bowlers until he was eventually out for 69. Plunkett had bowled superbly this morning and got just reward when Dilshan edged an out-swinger to Trescothick. Plunkett has been seaming and swinging the ball and has beaten Dilshan several times today.

However, rain finished the session 20min earlier.

England must be biting their nails right now, they've got just 2 more to get and 62 is the SL lead. Kulasera, Vaas and Murali are the last two, Vaas is a decent player so England must target the other two.

If England fail to win this they only have themselves to blame. It looked all done and dusted on Friday night but a succession of dropped catches all over the weekend have cost them about 100 runs and precious hours.

Hopefully they can finally finish the job and the rain will stay away.

"How to snatch mediocrity from the jaws of victory" by the England Cricket team.

Available to read now on all good sports web sites.

What a joke. How do you drop 10 catches in an innings?