England regain pride but still have to pray for rain

Cook's authoritative halfcentury restored a semblance of calm to England after the capitulation of their first innings 81 all out before heavy rain washed out play after lunch.

Backlash: England fans' message

It left England going into today's last day of the third Test with the form of their opener and another poor weather forecast giving them hope that they will avoid what seemed like an inevitable crushing innings defeat to end their Sri Lankan tour.

A group of fans among the thousands who have followed this tour waited for England to leave the stadium here on Thursday before roundly barracking them as they departed the scene of one of their worst performances in years.

Then England arrived yesterday to see a large banner on the ramparts of the 17th-century Dutch fort that overlooks this stunning ground which proclaimed 'England, hang your heads in shame'. The message was received and understood.

"You don't need any motivation when you see banners like that and you are booed getting on the team bus," said Cook. "It was tough to take. It's not as if we're not trying. What happened hurt us, it hurt our pride and the feeling in our guts we all have when representing England.

"People are entitled to react the way they did. They are passionate cricket supporters and they have travelled a long way to watch us play and support us. They want us to do well but, trust me, however bad they were feeling, we felt worse.

"We've tried to work out what's gone wrong here but we've struggled to come up with an answer. I don't think the feeling was quite as bad as we had after the defeat in Adelaide last winter because we lost the game then, whereas here we had another chance to put it right.

"But there's no doubt you remember the tough times more than the good ones and hopefully it will be a long time before we have this feeling again."

Cook was one of the few players not too culpable in the slide to 81, seemingly not getting an edge to the Chaminda Vaas delivery which ended his brief stay at the crease — even though he should not have hung his bat out to give the left-arm swing bowler a chance of snaring him.

He resumed the second innings yesterday with much to do, not least to try to make sure at least one England player scores a hundred before a series that promised so much but has delivered little ends today.

And the fluent way in which Cook moved to 53 before the heavens opened five minutes before lunch augured well for England, one particular square drive off debutant Chanaka Welegedara being one of the best shots of the trip.

The one session possible was not negotiated entirely smoothly, with England captain Michael Vaughan falling to a poor shot for the second time in the match. This time he drove at a wide one from Welegedara and was taken effortlessly at second slip by Mahela Jayawardene.