England suffer day to forget
Well - where on earth do I start, having sat and watched that?
Clearly, the first thing to do is to between the two teams that England supporters must be absolutely horrified.
Compared to England, Sri Lanka have played tough, disciplined and mature cricket – and I have chosen that last adjective carefully - while some of England’s cricket strikes me as being worryingly immature, just as was during the summer.
In the field, the team has developed a preoccupation with hurling the ball past the batsman’s nose to the wicket-keeper after every ball in the misguided belief that it demonstrates playing tough cricket. It doesn't.
It might seem a trivial point, but measure England against Sri Lanka, who play genuinely hard, aggressive cricket by observing the basics - such as occupying the crease, catching catches, bowling intelligently - and applying them ruthlessly.
They have served up a valuable lesson in this series - but will England learn from it?
This morning I observed head coach Peter Moores delivering what appeared to be a firm telling off before play began with the players obediently sitting around him in a circle like naughty schoolboys.
Presumably Moores was chastising them for their efforts in the field and demanding better - if so, his lecture had absolutely no effect. Within minutes of the restart, another catch had been dropped and the Sri Lankan batsmen cut loose before Jayawardene declared. Then, in reply, England's batting was simply swept aside.
I have seen these collapses before at the end of tours. There is panic in the dressing room as wickets tumble and people search frantically for their bat and pads. It is infectious.
But in truth we saw a different game when Sri Lanka bowled. Lasith Malinga reminded me of with the ball he ripped past a startled Kevin Pietersen’s nose.
Pietersen had both feet off the ground as he tried to avoid gloving it, and the wicket-keeper was airborne as he caught the catch - brilliant cricket. I suspect England’s bowlers hid in embarrassment when Pietersen walked off.
England have a lot of thinking to do when the tour is over. Monty Panesar has endured a chastening tour, taking eight wickets at 51 runs each; Matt Prior faces the sack behind the stumps and the jury is out on Ravi Bopara.
For now, all the team can do is fight it out to the bitter end, but with two days still to go, it will need more than one of Galle’s torrential downpours to save them.
