Cricket:Mahela Jayawardene showed Sri Lanka's thirst for records continues unabated as England were made to suffer in the second Test.
Sri Lanka captain Jayawardene struck an unbeaten 167 at a searing SSC to surpass the recently-retired Sanath Jayasuriya as his country's leading run-scorer in Tests.
The 30-year-old also broke Graham Gooch's record for the most runs at one Test venue, surpassing the Englishman's 2015 at Lord's when he lofted left-arm spinner Monty Panesar for the six over long-off to transform his eighth Test hundred on this ground to a 150.
It has been one landmark after another for Sri Lanka in this series to date — Muttiah Muralitharan became Test cricket's most prolific bowler during the 88-run victory in Kandy while Kumar Sangakkara became the first man to register innings in excess of 150 in four consecutive matches.
The majority of Jayawardene's contribution came alongside fellow centurion Michael Vandort in a 227-run alliance, as Sri Lanka closed the third day on 379 for four.
It took Michael Vaughan's team more than five hours to separate the third-wicket duo, having endured barren sessions yesterday evening and this morning.
They may have feared the worst, as this ground has proved thankless for touring attacks in recent times — Jayawardene and Sangakkara combined in a 624-run stand against South Africa here last year, the highest partnership for any wicket in Tests.
"We try to keep the opposition on the field most of the time," admitted Vandort.
"It is hard to bowl properly in this heat, we have been talking about it in the dressing room, to keep them in the sun and tire them up."
To their credit, England plugged away throughout the day, probably once again lacking the expertise Vaughan has talked about being required in subcontinent conditions.
Edges fell short of fielders with regularity in the first couple of sessions and the only one to carry off the fast bowlers came at the scheduled close time of 5pm, when Steve Harmison's extra bounce resulted in Chamara Silva guiding to gully one short of a half-century.
The only other success came in mid-afternoon when, with the fourth delivery of the second new ball, left-armer Ryan Sidebottom trapped Vandort leg before wicket.
On a pitch which offered some surprising turn and bounce, given the slowness of the surface previously, Panesar arguably had his most difficult day of 21 months in Test cricket.
It was not until his 17th over of the innings that he managed his first maiden and he was being taken for close to five runs per over before that.
Occasional off-spinner Kevin Pietersen was the more impressive of England's two slow men for a portion of the proceedings, and it was not until Panesar went over the wicket that he found some consistency.
That was a tactic which served former spin rival Ashley Giles so well in taking 18 wickets on the previous tour here four years ago.
The change of angle did create the first chance of the day, as Jayawardene, on 75, edged a ripper from outside leg-stump which was floored by wicketkeeper Matt Prior.
Jayawardene was also reprieved by umpire Aleem Dar on 130 when, from an attempted reverse sweep out of the rough, the ball appeared to catch the batsman's glove on its way to Alastair Cook at short-leg.
Like fellow fast bowler Harmison, 21-year-old debutant Stuart Broad proved economical, having rode out a nightmare afternoon spell yesterday when Dar twice warned him for running on the pitch.
Vaughan asked the youngster to operate from the same south end again this morning but it was an experiment which lasted only one over, as one more official word from the Pakistani umpire would have resulted in a ban for the innings.