England skipper Vaughan frustrated by freak dismissal

The England captain' s uncanny knack of finding unusual ways to get out had struck again just when he needed it least.

Nothing had seemed more certain than a Vaughan century on the first day of this pivotal second Test, as the England captain drove as only he can and pulled with an assurance which suggested all was well with his world as he progressed to 87 from an opening stand of 133 with Alastair Cook, the first in excess of three figures in 15 England Tests.

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Yet the kind of freak dismissal, which has been patented by Vaughan over the years, presented Sri Lanka with the open door they desperately needed at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground which has become their fortress since England upset the odds to win a Test and a series six years ago.

The promise of a commanding England total, after they had won a toss history suggested was a difficult one to call, looked assured just after lunch.

Murali even looked like a mortal at a ground where he has taken more wickets — 143 in 21 Tests before yesterday — than any bowler has garnered at any other ground.

But Vaughan's dismissal led to a soporific second session when Cook and Ian Bell struggled to assert themselves on a perfect batting track and then a potentially catastrophic final one, when four wickets fell, two of them highly contentiously, as England inched to 258 for five before the close, their aspirations of an essential first-innings score of 400-plus hanging in the balance going into today's second day.

When Vaughan is in this sort of form there are few batsmen who can match him stylistically in the world.

The England captain had taken the decision to pitch Steve Harmison and Stuart Broad into England's line-up at the expense of the injured Matthew Hoggard and the mercurial Jimmy Anderson, and then was happy to avoid the possibility of batting last against Murali even though, in the last six years here, the team batting first has averaged 290 whereas the one batting second has averaged 425.

How right Vaughan appeared as he took the initiative and much of the strike to take the attack to Sri Lanka, with Cook happy to play second fiddle to his captain after facing just seven balls in the first Test defeat at Kandy before falling twice to Chaminda Vaas.

The Essex man had the stroke of luck he needed on eight, when he edged Dilhara Fernando to slip and saw Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara make a hash of it between them, and then set about applying himself to the lengthy innings his temperament and technique can deliver.

Cook and Bell could add only 70 in a middle session off 29 overs as opposed to the 97 that Cook and Vaughan accumulated from the first, but it was after tea that the match sparked into life, with Australian umpire Daryl Harper taking an unwelcome starring role in the shifting of the initiative to Sri Lanka.

There was nothing untoward about Bell's departure, Mubarak claiming a rather more conventional short-leg catch, but Kevin Pietersen's uncanny ability to take centre stage surfaced in circumstances that left him furious after Chamara Silva and Sangakkara combined to claim a catch that replays suggested was dubious.

Vaas's ploy of suffocating Pietersen's attempts to compile early runs led to him edging a wide one to second slip, where Silva dived and lost control of the catch before parrying it to Sangakkara at first slip, with Sri Lanka in no doubt that the dismissal was genuine.

Not so Pietersen, who was convinced that it had been grassed, an opinion that quickly seemed to be confirmed by television replays.

Harper, replacing Asad Rauf for this Test, conferred with Aleem Dar, was heard to say, "Are you sure?", to his square-leg colleague and then raised the finger, the umpires' hands being tied by the ICC's instruction for them not to refer catches to the TV umpire unless they are both unsighted.

Pietersen got halfway to the dressing room before the first replay of the incident — seen by spectators on monitors around the ground — led to a chorus of boos from the dominant English contingent, encouraging Pietersen to stop, turn around and seek confirmation from Harper, which mirrored his incident at Lord's last summer.

A second raising of the finger told him it really was time to go.

Harper was more culpable when he ended the long vigilance of Cook, just when he seemed certain, on 81, to carry his bat throughout a whole day's play without reaching three figures.

Lasith Malinga swung a yorker with the second new ball into the left-hander's pads, but the doubts of the naked eye were confirmed by replays showing it not only pitched outside leg stump, but would have swung some way past it.

England's grasp of the ascendancy was further weakened when Ravi Bopara fell victim to a vicious Malinga yorker the very next ball, but Paul Collingwood batted with an assertiveness to the close in conjunction with Matt Prior that suggested all was not lost for England.

They might not, in the circumstances, care to have a look at what happened in the corresponding Test last year in Colombo.

South Africa, on that occasion, won the toss and batted first, were dismissed cheaply and then saw Jayawardene and Sangakkara add the small matter of 624 in a partnership that has never been bettered in Test history.