Rain relief for England

Three wickets in four balls during one chaotic Muttiah Muralitharan over before lunch spiralled England into deep trouble.

But a torrential downpour one hour into the afternoon session allowed Alastair Cook (107 not out), whose seventh Test hundred was the cornerstone of England's defiance, and Matt Prior (18no) to return to the dressing room.

Groundstaff worked frantically to cover the entire playing area after the rain came in at 1.40pm, with England 237 for five.

Having followed on 418 runs in arrears, England were 20 minutes short of lunch when the whole complexion of the match changed.

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.

England had brought up their 200 in impressive fashion with Alastair Cook, who will be 23 on Christmas Day, anchoring things.

But with Murali operating around the wicket, Pietersen picked out home captain Mahela Jayawardene strategically placed at short midwicket.

Two balls later, Paul Collingwood was lured out of his ground to be stumped by Prasanna Jayawardene.

And then Ravi Bopara completed a pair for the match when he edged wide of slip and fatally took a couple of steps, no doubt thinking of a run. Mahela Jayawardene dived to his right and relayed the ball to his namesake in a flash to beat Bopara's dive by inches.