England v Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka subside to surrender lead to England

With rain taking time out of all but one of the five days in Cardiff, it looked as though England’s chances of forcing a late win had passed when the sides belatedly took to the field at 3pm.

What followed was one of the most stunning finales in Test history as England declared their first innings after two overs – just long enough for Ian Bell to reach his 13th Test century – with a lead of only 96.

That left a maximum of 51 overs to take all 10 Sri Lanka wickets, a tall order to say the least, but remarkably they needed less than half of them to complete the job.

Chris Tremlett and Graeme Swann took four wickets apiece as the tourists capitulated for 82 in 24.2 overs.

“I think it will go down as one of the most extraordinary cricket matches any of us have played in,” said Strauss, before admitting the weather-affected nature of the first four days had initially left him with an entirely different feeling.

“(Yesterday morning) I was saying this was one of the drabbest matches I’ve ever played and suddenly it changes round so quickly. That is great credit to the guys.”

Strauss was part of the England side that lost to Australia at Adelaide in 2006 despite posting 551-6 in the first innings of the game.

While that dramatic reversal came to mind even in the afterglow of this result, he admitted he could not think of a less likely win in his time.

“There’s not a more remarkable finish I can think of,” he said.

“We were very keen to press for a victory but obviously we thought it was going to be a long shot to achieve it.

“I suppose our defeat in Adelaide was similar in a way. It’s one of those situations where the full pressure of Test match cricket can come to bear on a team and you need guys to stand up and get past that.

“Thankfully we were able to make sure their guys weren’t able to do that.

“I was very impressed. We showed quite a lot of ruthlessness in Australia this winter and this was another example of that.”

Official figures recorded just 922 fans coming through the turnstiles to witness England’s win, though the gates were thrown open at 4pm, and Strauss was pleased with the way his side managed to fashion a sense of occasion regardless.

“That was one of the big challenges for us, to create our own feeling of intensity,” he said.

“It was a small crowd but they got into it and all credit to them for doing so.

“You can’t blame people for staying away with the weather like it was in the morning, but these are the things that test you as a side: how desperately do you want to win?

“I think we showed we really wanted it and we got what we deserved.

“I was really impressed by the intensity the guys showed because in those situations you can come out and go through the motions. But right from ball one our two seamers set the tone and they were backed up in the field.”

England will announce their squad for the second Test at Lord’s at 9am today, with a replacement for the injured James Anderson the primary talking point.

Tremlett (4-40) was brilliant with the new ball in the absence of Anderson, and Swann (4-16) ripped through the Sri Lankan line-up.

Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan was utterly bemused by his side’s performance, which included losing eight wickets for 49 runs after tea, particularly in the wake of the respectable 400 they had compiled batting first.

He said: “It’s very difficult to explain, I can’t believe we got out in just 25 overs with such a good batting line-up like we have. We lost the match because we batted really badly.

“We knew we would be batting for at least 45 or 50 overs. We knew looking forward in the morning that they would declare, everyone knew that after Bell’s hundred they would declare, but I cannot explain what happened.

“Our batting line-up has guys like Mahela (Jayawardene), Kumar (Sangakkara), Thilan (Samaraweera) and myself, we are experienced players and we need to regroup as soon as possible and come back for the next Test on Friday.”

Their 82 was Sri Lanka’s lowest Test score in England, and their joint-fourth lowest of all time, but Dilshan, who was dismissed for 10 after giving a return catch to the towering Tremlett via his glove and thigh pad, said his side could have no complaints about the wicket.

“It was a very good wicket with a little bit of turn and a bit of bounce,” he said.

“It was a very good track. In the last two days it was good for batting, but we didn’t bat well, that was the main issue, but it was really good for Test cricket.”

It was a desperately disappointing way for Dilshan’s first game as captain of his country to end, but he insisted he will remain calm with such a short turnaround until the second game of the three-match series at Lord’s on Friday.