Give me tons of runs: Vaughan calls for his top order to save series

The captain knows they must apply themselves to compiling a formidable first innings score in next week's third Test at Galle.

England suffered only three selfinflicted batting wounds yesterday as they kept Sri Lanka at bay at the Sinhalese Sports Club for two sessions before rain mercifully put an end to a Test that was as tedious as the first one had been eventful.

The match was drawn. It should also have been hung and quartered.

Yet Vaughan knows the problem his talented top order have in replicating the single-minded marathon of concentration produced here by Mahela Jayawardene. And it will see them lose their status as the second best Test team in the world unless it is rapidly corrected.

No one was more culpable than the captain himself who, for the second innings running, batted with flair and freedom in reaching a half century of pure class before throwing it away by tamely chipping back to Dilhara Fernando a ball that perhaps stopped on this poor excuse for a pitch.

'A few players, like myself, were set in this game and perhaps a bit unlucky with our dismissals,' said Vaughan, 'but if we are going to win Tests we really have to make big scores in the first innings. We had an opportunity to get 425 to 450 first time here, which would have created a bit more pressure for Sri Lanka and we are still looking for the first-innings hundreds from our players that we've asked for.'

The captain has every right to put his first-innings dismissal down to misfortune — perhaps not so his second — but when he can bat this way, as well as he did in the Ashes of 2002-03 and at Nottingham last summer against India, he must go on to get monumental scores.

It is criminal for him to do otherwise.

And it is an indictment of England that their batsmen have now scored 10 half centuries in this Test series without one of them converting that to three figures.

At least Vaughan helped ease any nerves England may have had when they set out yesterday. In frustrating Muttiah Muralitharan and company, England avoided going two behind with one to play and losing their seventh successive away Test.

Vaughan and Alastair Cook serenely took their first-wicket stand to 107 before the captain was dispatched and their second century stand for the first wicket in the match was a feat not achieved by an England pair for 36 years. Threefigure opening stands for England are clearly like buses — they went 15 Tests without one and then two came along at once.

Cook had lasted only seven balls in the first Test in Kandy, but here in Colombo his calm temperament was to the fore as he joined his team-mates in negating the threat of the best bowler in the world and, like Vaughan, adding a second half century in the Test.

But a lapse of concentration to the first ball after lunch, a delivery that leapt more than expected from leg spinner Chamara Silva, saw England back under a semblance of pressure as Cook edged to slip. They appeared to wobble when Ian Bell gave Murali the charge and holed out to long on when he seemed sure to bat England to the close. Thankfully, Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood saw the tourists comfortably through to tea when the heavens opened.

So England head south today on an emotional journey to the area devastated by the tsunami nearly four years ago. In many ways it is a journey into the unknown because this will be the first official match staged at the rebuilt Galle Stadium.

But if England are hoping for a bit of life in this relaid wicket they may be disappointed. Early indications suggest it may be so slow and lifeless that it makes the SSC look like an old-fashioned Headingley green top.

'We're all looking forward to Galle because we know what happened there and it will be an historic occasion,' said Vaughan. 'The crucial thing will be to assess the pitch quickly and decide the best line-up to take 20 wickets, because we want to go home with a drawn series.'

Matthew Hoggard looks to have recovered from his back injury in time for the start of the Test on Tuesday, but Vaughan is reluctant to go for broke and bring in Graeme Swann at the expense of Ravi Bopara to give England a fifth bowling option they surely need.

Jayawardene criticised England for the pace of their batting on the first day here, saying the tempo cost them any chance of forcing a win. He may have been trying to make a psychological point but was also perhaps camouflaging the state of Murali's overworked right shoulder a n d t h e d a m a g e d bicep that stopped him playing in the one-day series in October.

Rumours abound that Murali is feeling the demands placed on him, both physically and mentally, and Sri Lanka look sure to bring in Tillekaratne Dilshan in Galle to provide an extra specialist spinning option denied them here by the retirement of Sanath Jayasuriya.

England may restrict their changes to bringing in Hoggard for Stuart Broad, but they know they have to get their heads down. Only big runs will do. And quickly.