Rain meant there was no play before lunch on the fifth and final day of the first Test between England and Sri Lanka yesterday as the series opener headed for a draw.
The umpires opted to bring lunch forward to 12:30pm in the hope of making a prompt start to the afternoon session.
On Sunday, Jonathan Trott struck a double-century and Ian Bell went to the brink of a ton as England piled on the runs against a depleted Sri Lanka attack.
England were 491 for five in reply to Sri Lanka’s first innings 400, a lead of 91, at stumps, with just one day of the rain-marred first Test remaining.
Trott made 203 and put on 160 for the fifth wicket with Warwickshire colleague Bell, unbeaten on 98 at the close. Eoin Morgan was 14 not out.
It was a different story though for Trott’s fellow South Africa-born batsman Kevin Pietersen, whose well-documented problems against left-arm spin continued when he fell to Rangana Herath for just 3.
It was the composed Trott’s second Test double-century following his 226 against Bangladesh at Lord’s last year and of his six Test centuries, four have been in excess of 150 — a remarkable conversion rate that has helped Trott to an average of 66.77, second only to that of Australia great Sir Donald Bradman’s 99.94.
Trott’s more than eight-hour innings eventually ended when he was bowled making room to cut against the spin of Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan, having faced 409 balls and hit 17 boundaries.
He has been criticized, though, for slow scoring and in taking 190 balls to make 78 runs on Sunday he gave his detractors some ammunition.
“It was tricky today, they bowled into the rough and it was difficult to score freely,” Trott told Sky Sports. “After drinks, we said: ‘Let’s try to push on a bit,’ and a few overs we actually did better than we hoped. They tried to slow us up today, so hopefully we can kick on tomorrow [Monday] and get further ahead of them. The good thing is they were turning it off the straight, so it brings [off-spinner] Graeme Swann into play tomorrow.”
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