Bats for walking-sticks

A wilting Darren Lehmann played beautifully today, to hold Australia together until stumps at the steamy SSC ground in Colombo. There to watch him were, on a quick post-tea head count, about 479 spectators, including around 14 ballboys, 11 policemen in khaki, and two inflatable kangaroos (in Australian colours).

For most of the day a bizarre hush cocooned the near-empty ground. Australia began the match with an unassailable 2-0 lead, and everyone except the players seemed to have a bad case of dead-rubber syndrome. By all accounts Sri Lankan cricket fans are a fickle lot, and quickly lose patience with a losing team.

A smattering did make it to the ground, which is set in one of Colombo's leafier districts. But there were dozing heads in the Seylan Bank Pavilion, and clock-watching journalists in the open-fronted crow's nest of a press box. One group of young Sri Lankans told me: "One-day game best game," and were gone by the time I'd walked round the ground.

The atmosphere was muggy, sleepy, and frankly a bit weird. You almost felt like you'd wake up at any moment, having dreamt the whole thing. Still, you could half-understand why people didn't come. It so humid that even sitting at a cricket ground seemed too much like hard work.

But through it all the players were magnificent. Lehmann, under his white sunhat, sweated buckets and occasionally used his bat as a walking stick. But he kept going and made a century. Sanath Jayasuriya took a great reflex catch to remove Adam Gilchrist at 5.20pm, when most of the rest of us were only thinking about a cold beer and a ceiling fan.

The "Fleet Street Exiles" would have appreciated his efforts. Yesterday at Kandy some of the finest athletes British journalism has to offer were playing the second match of their annual cricket tour. They had some good players: when I arrived the bloke from the Daily Mail and a gentleman from The Times were whacking the attack to all parts. But they were all soon knackered in the field, drooping under trees for shade, calling for water or substitute fielders. I was drained just watching them. On days like today, you marvel at the stamina of the average Test player, and appreciate just how good at his job he must be.