For once, SL avoid being caught cold

Before this match Angelo Mathews said he thought Sri Lanka fielded and caught well at Headingley. They dropped at least three catches in their one innings in the field. Yet he was probably correct in suggesting this represented improvement. Often this year, they have fumbled the ball, fallen over in pursuit, fist-bumped it, chest-bumped it, caressed it lovingly over the rope, escorted it gallantly to the fence, and danced flailingly around it like it was the wooden idol in a tribal ritual.

So when Mathews said he was hopeful his team would field well in Durham, it was easy to doubt him. It had been the coldest approach to a Test many of his team had experienced. Sri Lanka do not field well in the cold. With their most-athletic seamer - Dushmantha Chameera - now gone, they also had three ungainly quicks whose bodies seem to consist only of limbs. Rangana Herath, is at least 90% torso. Sri Lanka were, in short, primed to have an atrocious day in the field.

But there Dimuth Karunaratne was at second slip, diving to his left to hold the ball flying quickly off Alastair Cook's blade. There Suranga Lakmal was at fine leg, flinging his rangy limbs in supplication to the heavens to soon find the ball lodged in his palms. This had been made all the better by his seeming to dart in several directions at once, after initially misreading the hook off Nick Compton's bat.

Lakmal even held the ball close for a few seconds after he came to a screeching stop just inside the boundary. Was he just enjoying the feeling of leather on skin? Was he happy at how surprisingly well his whole manoeuvre had gone? On another day, he could have easily traveled over the line, into the boundary boards, and on to Sri Lanka, because going by track record, there is no way a Sri Lankan quick can twist his body like that and not be injured for several months. Most fielders didn't really believe he had caught it at first. Why would they? They are not idiots.

Later, Mathews himself led by example when he went aerial to his right to hold a slippery slip catch, close in, off Alex Hales. Lahiru Thirimanne was the next to take flight, climbing in an instant to his right to cling to James Vince's uppish cover drive. This was the most athletic take, but perhaps the least surprising, as Thirimanne has recently been involved in many wonderful dismissals off expansive drives. Usually he is the batsman. But still, it is one thing to see this kind of catch repeatedly at close quarters; another entirely to emulate it.

Towards the end of the day, the fielding slipped a little. Third man running around to deep cover could have dived to stop four, but offered only an unsuccessful boot instead, allowing Jonny Bairstow an undeserved boundary. Dinesh Chandimal let another ball wriggle between his sore wicketkeepers' fingers to concede a bye in the 86th over. There were unnecessary shies at the stumps, and questionable backing up as well, but who could dwell on such minutiae after the year this team has had? Catches aside, even in the other fielding disciplines, this was Sri Lanka's sublime day of near-competence; three sessions of glorious adequacy.

With their two best quicks of the past 18 months now out of the series, it is just as well the fielders lifted their game to make up for the weakening of the attack.

"We have to catch everything that's possible," coach Graham Ford said. "If you have a really express bowler or very skillful ones - like perhaps England have - even if you miss one or two catches, there's still more chance of another one coming fairly soon. For us, it's very important that we latch on to everything to stay competitive in the series."

The catching was especially heartening, because on Wednesday, Sri Lanka's fielders had kept their gloves on during drills, so chill was the wind blowing off the North Sea. "Everyone in the team was happy to see those catches as they were really special catches," Ford said. "Hats off to boys. At training they have worked hard with very cold hands at times. They have really put in the hard efforts and they deserve the rewards."

If just one more wicket had fallen in the day, Sri Lanka might have even left the field on even terms with their hosts. If two marginal lbw calls had gone their way early on, who knows, Sri Lanka could even have been ahead.

The temperature is not forecast to climb higher than 13C on day two. If Sri Lanka finish the innings without having spilt a single catch in such conditions, 10,000 kilometres away, their fans may not be able to hold back joyful tears.