This time there was no post-tea demolition job as Sri Lanka kept themselves alive in the series by surviving the final afternoon at Lord's fairly comfortably by reaching 127 for 3. Andrew Strauss's declaration left a notional target of 343 in 58 overs after Alastair Cook hit his 18th Test hundred, but England could have been more aggressive and they never really looked like hustling through Sri Lanka again.
The visitors have shown twice in this series - the second innings in Cardiff and the first innings here - that the batting is prone to collapse. Adding to that on the final day Tillakaratne Dilshan was only prepared to bat in an emergency, having sustained a hairline fracture to his thumb, which meant they had four fit frontline batsman, but Strauss opted to bat Sri Lanka out of the contest and hope for another last-session demise.
However, to Sri Lanka's credit they kept their composure although wickets went down with enough frequency to keep a semblance of interest. Thilan Samaraweera, who was given lbw to Graeme Swann on 4 but successfully used the DRS, secured safety alongside Prasanna Jayawardene when Strauss called the game off with a handshake at the start of the final hour despite Sri Lanka's weak batting to follow.
When Kumar Sangakkara, opening in place of Dilshan, drove loosely to point in Chris Tremlett's third over England sensed a chance. They could have had a second major scalp before tea when when Mahela Jayawardene went for a single to cover and would have been out with a direct hit from Eoin Morgan. Instead, Jayawardene and Tharanga Paranavitana put together an 18-over stand which took the sting out of England.
Stuart Broad provided a lift when Jayawardene edged to fourth slip where Kevin Pietersen held a fine catch, but England didn't strike in clusters. Jonathan Trott proved a surprise with the ball when he hooped one back into Paranavitana which struck pad first and at 96 for 3 with 25 overs left there was time for a final push.
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