Bad opening day for Sri Lankans

SOUTHAMPTON, England:

Sri Lanka's hopes of a series-equalling victory in the third and final Test against England lay in tatters yesterday after pacemen James Anderson and Chris Tremlett sowed havoc on a rain-affected opening day at the Rose Bowl.

Sri Lanka stumbled to 81-4 by stumps, Anderson and Tremlett blasting through the top order with two wickets each on a frustrating day for both teams in Southampton, where only 38 overs were possible because of rain.

Thilan Samaraweera (24 not out) and Prasanna Jayawardene (10 not out), who came together with the team in a perilous position at 39-4, led the recovery in the final session for the Sri Lankans with a precious fifth-wicket partnership of 42 as the sun finally came out.

needs a victory

But the scoreboard still makes miserable reading for a team that needs a victory to level the three-match series at 1-1.

Tremlett generated fierce bounce and pace in wet and often blustery conditions to boast the best figures in England's bowling unit of 2-17, while Anderson - back in the side to lead the attack after recovering from a side strain - finished with 2-24 off 16 overs.

"It was pretty tough conditions out there but we bowled well as a unit, we're a confident side and 1-0 up so hope to take advantage of that,'' Tremlett said.

"We'd have liked to get six wickets but we beat the bat a lot. Stuart Broad was very unlucky and could have had a couple of wickets but we're happy with four.''

Four rain interruptions, which truncated both the morning and afternoon sessions to just 18 overs in total, did nothing to help the fluency of Sri Lanka's batsmen. It also enabled England's pacemen to keep fresh.