Dilshan closes on double hundred at Lord's

Tillakaratne Dilshan moved on to 187 by lunch at Lord's on Sunday, giving Sri Lanka real hope of overhauling England's first-innings total on day three of the second of three tests between the sides.

Resuming despite the thumb injury he sustained Saturday, the Sri Lanka captain beat his previous test best of 168 to guide the team to 344-2 — 142 short of England's first-innings total of 486.

Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara added 57 runs to Sri Lanka's overnight 231-1 before Chris Tremlett removed Sangakkara for 26 with his fourth delivery with the new ball for the only breakthrough of the morning session.

Mahela Jayawardene was the other unbeaten batsman on 25, putting on the first 50 of his partnership with Dilshan in just 41 balls.

After two days of warm, bright sunshine, overcast conditions prevailed in north London, and the ball swung usefully when the bowlers put it in the right place.

But the session partly resembled Saturday afternoon's, with pacemen Stuart Broad and Tremlett menacing for a handful of overs before the Sri Lankans settled on a good batting track.

Tremlett and Steven Finn continued to serve up the odd good swinging ball from the Pavilion End but Dilshan made full use of the bowlers' tendency to stray down leg side and again tried to hit spinner Graeme Swann out of the attack.

As opener Tharanga Paranavitana had Saturday, Sangakkara played the more circumspect role in partnership with Dilshan and added just 13 from 64 deliveries faced before he was tempted by a wide delivery from Tremlett in the 81st over. He edged with the shoulder of his bat to Prior, whose 126 was key to England's total.

Sangakkara's average score in England is just 27.64, almost half of his overall test average of 56.42.

Broad beat the bat twice with an opening maiden and Tremlett conceded just a leg bye off his first over, lifting one delivery sharply past Sangakkara. That was the pattern for the first half dozen overs, but Dilshan again weathered the early storm, surviving the odd mis-hit or swinging delivery that beat the bat.

Swann, who needed treatment to his wrist after jarring it in an attempted catch Saturday, took a hit on the shin in the slips from Jayawardene's loose shot at Broad when on 23.

With light drizzle starting just before lunch and a chance of rain forecast over the remainder of the match, a draw still looks likely. But after an innings defeat in Cardiff, Sri Lanka needs to win to have any chance of winning the series and Dilshan is still attacking.

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