´óÏó´«Ã½

Perhaps he meant it, perhaps it was kidology to spur on his bowlers who looked on less than thrilled from the dressing-room.

But whatever it was produced a disciplined and controlled response with scarcely a bad ball bowled in the first session.

Kevin Pietersen – not known for his – set the tone in that department with a brilliant diving catch at point to remove a typically cavalier Sanath Jayasuriya in only the third over.

After Matthew Hoggard tempted Michael Vandort to chip a catch to mid on, he went on to claim three more wickets in 12 deliveries by virtue of pitching the ball up and allowing it to swing just enough.

Hoggard is a tireless campaigner, but Vaughan was equally busy, moving the fielders here and there almost every ball as he sought to put pressure on the batsmen.

At 42-5, Sri Lanka’s miserable experience in Australia appeared to have beaten any fight out of them and they were destined for complete embarrassment.

At least Kumar Sangakkara – now one of the world’s greats - and Prasanna Jayawardene managed to battle it out in a stand of 106 for the sixth wicket.

It required a stroke of luck to part them, Jayawardene turning Monty Panesar off the face of the bat into Alastair Cook’s body at short leg.

But with the long tail exposed, Sangakkara found himself facing the prospect of running out of partners.

Paul Collingwood’s brilliant catch denied Sangakkara another century, and the tail folded meekly.

This might well become a feature of the series – England’s tail starts with Ryan Sidebottom at number eight.

The front line batsmen on both teams will have to decide how they are going to manage if they are confronted with a similar dilemma to that of Sangakkara.

Ravi Bopara, for example, must have a clear plan in his mind as to whether he will farm the strike and turn down runs, or leave the tail-enders to cope for themselves.

In an interview before play started, he admitted to not having given it any thought yet!

Another feature will be bad light curtailing the amount of play in each day. Hopefully common sense will prevail, and play will start half an hour earlier in the remaining two Tests to prevent too much time being lost.