Sri Lanka v England: first Test, day four – live!

12th over: Sri Lanka 22-0 (Karunaratne 9, Kaushal 13) Anderson, surely on his last tour of the sub-continent, proving as miserly as ever. Still not much sign of ageing on the old boy – slender as a lolly stick, same lovely action, and Eeyoreish demeanour.

11th over: Sri Lanka 19-0 (Karunaratne 8, Kaushal 13) And this is a tight start by England and a careful one by Sri Lanka. The only runs come when Silva pulls a shorter one from Curran behind square and they scamper a couple. JAck Leach wriggling his shoulders in anticipation.

10th over: Sri Lanka 19-0 (Karunaratne 8, Kaushal 11) Jimmy’s first appeal of the day, an anguished cry against Karunaratne – but it looks to have pitched outside leg. Joe Root rushes forward like an eager uncle offering lemon bonbons, but Anderson shows no desire to review, so Root potters back again. Three balls later, Karunaratne pushes forward softly and the ball falls just short of Joe Root at slip. Another maiden.

9th over: Sri Lanka 19-0 (Karunaratne 8, Kaushal 11) A touch of swing for Sam Curran and some neat glovework from Foakes who takes the ball neatly down the leg-side. And, loads of school-kids sitting in the stands looking happy.

8th over: Sri Lanka 15-0 (Karunaratne 6, Kaushal 8) And the first over falls to Jimmy Anderson, with the breeze apparently having switched direction to blowing from the sea to the peninsula. A few looseners wide outside the off stump, and that’s a maiden.

And if you bore of this, hop over to Adelaide where Australia are batting in the second ODI against South Africa.

A cup of tea drunk and suddenly even an alarm at 350 doesn’t seem so bad.

England playing football out on the outfield – ten wickets to take today – I’ve got a sort of kind of itch that tomorrow’s morning’s early shift will be tucked up in bed. In the Sky studio Marcus Trescothick, Rob Key and Ian Ward are bright-eyed and assuredly poppied.

Athers is calling last night’s storm “biblical,” Pitch has held together well though and work could be hard for the seamers because as soon as the ball goes over the boundary it is going to get soggy. Difficult then, says Athers, for them to get any reverse-swing.

And despite this photograph…

…and an absolute downpour yesterday evening, the covers are off and play will start on time.

Good morning bleary souls and thank you for gathering at this unreasonable hour. The game is England’s to win – with only the alleged placidness of the Galle pitch and the vagaries of the weather standing between them and a first Test victory abroad for two years. Fancy – that really is quite the wait.

Sri Lanka have defeated non-Asian opposition at home with ease over the last few years, but the best you can say about their batting so far is that they survived the seven overs Joe Root imposed on them last night without incident. The stats will not have made for a relaxing bed-time story – highest run-chase at Galle in a Test: 99. Longest any team has batted in a fourth-innings: 114 overs.

And lastly, belated applause for Keaton Jennings – who for all his difficulties against pace bowling has always come across as a decent, kind human being (and studying accountancy in his spare time). He was decent and kind to Vic in the press conference after play too.