10.17am Here come the players, Thirimanne and Perera to face the new ball, and specifically James Anderson, taking the honours from the Fort End.

10.08am Well, that was short and to the point. Perera sneaks in at the death to pick off the last wicket, plus an assist for the Root run-out, but take a bow Lasith Embuldeniya, whose 42 overs of hard toil have yielded 7 for 137. Shades of Murali's first innings at the Oval in 1998 ... which doesn't augur well for England in the second dig!

Right, time for the Test to begin. How are Anderson's aching limbs holding up? He looked limber enough in crouching for his reverse sweep to be fair...

Rajat: "Sri Lanka has their noses in front but just about. Their first goal should be to avoid a collapse and get bundled for 150 or lower. Once they have mitigated that risk, they should look to try get about 250-270 and leave England with a target of around 300 and 3 sessions to survive on a day 5 turning track. They need to try force the result though as I suspect England won't mind a draw" England would bite your hands off for a draw from here. Take the series and run!