ALAISTAIR Cook and Jonathan Trott hit centuries as England reached 287 for two wickets after a rain-affected day three of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Cardiff yesterday. Only 70 overs were possible, with the entire morning session being lost to rain as light drizzle settled in above the Swalec Stadium.
Nightwatchman James Anderson (1) fell almost immediately when play finally began, but thereafter Cook and Trott produced a stand which blunted Sri Lanka’s attack and took England towards the tourists’ first innings total.
Cook ended unbeaten on 129, with Trott 125 not out and their partnership worth 240 runs as England trailed by 113 runs, but with eight wickets still in hand they are well-placed to build a lead and leave Sri Lanka with an awkward task to bat for a draw on day five.
It had not looked so simple in the afternoon, however, when the pair came together with Sri Lanka scenting blood, and had to dig deep as Ajantha Mendis and Suranga Lakmal probed with the ball.
The first nine overs of the day yielded just eight runs, but when skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan threw the ball to his other bowlers the visitors’ momentum ebbed away.
Trott and Cook, who were such a brutally effective partnership during the Ashes tour, picked up where they left off in Australia, defending stoutly, leaving the ball judiciously, and waiting for the bad balls to score their runs.
The landmarks soon began to arrive, however – Cook brought up his half-century before tea, and clipped into midwicket to seal the pair’s fourth century partnership in just 16 innings together.
The retirements of Muttiah Muralitharan, who has a record 800 Test wickets to his name, and unorthodox pace bowler Lasith Malinga meant that Sri Lanka’s bowling line-up looked inexperienced and ill-equipped to succeed on the Welsh wicket and, as the batsmen give little away, heads began to sink.
Trott raised his half-century shortly after the tea break, looking particularly strong off his legs and through the covers.
The closest either man came to losing his wicket was by run-out, with Trott on a couple of occasions taking rash singles. Thisara Perera had all three stumps to aim for with the right-hander a long way short of his ground when on 57 runs, but he threw wide.
Otherwise the pair were concentration personified, unconcerned by going at one stage for 23 overs without adding a boundary before Cook slog-swept Dilshan to the rope as he closed in on a century.
His hundred eventually came from his 224th ball with a fiercely-struck back-foot drive through square, his fifth ton in his last 10 innings for the Test side, while Trott’s form, less celebrated, has been equally impressive, and he followed suit when Sri Lanka took the second new ball.
Lakmal bowled a loose first over, and two trademark strokes through the off side brought up the 200-run partnership and Trott’s sixth ton.
The new ball in fact did little for the Sri Lankans except to accelerate England’s previously unspectacular run rate, as the pair rattled along at more than five an over towards the end of the day, reward for their persistence and obstinacy.
Dilshan managed to get an off-break to spit up at Cook in the penultimate over but with neither batsman losing his wicket the sight will have pleased England spinner Graeme Swann rather than concerned his batting colleagues ahead of day four.

SCORECARD
SRI LANKA 1st innings 400
England 1st innings
A. Strauss c D. Jayawardene b Lakmal    20
A. Cook not out    129
J. Anderson c D. Jayawardene b Mendis    1
I. Trott not out    125
Extras: (b-5, lb-2, nb-5)    12
Total: (for 2 wkts, off 90 overs)    287
Fall of wickets: 1-46, 2-47.
Bowling: Lakmal 19-4-54-1 (nb-1), Perera 14-1-53-0, Dilshan 9-1-27-0, Maharoof 15-1-56-0 (nb-3), Mendis 18-4-43-1 (nb-1) Herath 15-1-47-0.