Day 27 and yes, it seems like we are still not used to the heat. We saw a bit of darkened cloud yesterday evening and there was a brief rain storm which lasted about 10 minutes but then again the skies cleared up and the heat prevailed.

After the disappointing loss of the first test, the guys have been putting in a lot of effort in training and practicing and we are going all out to try and win the next one to level the series.

From my current non-playing point of view, it's been two weeks of much self-motivation and self-discipline to keep practicing for the one-dayers that lie ahead in Australia. With the help of the fizz, those of us not playing in the tests have been doing extra work on fitness and conditioning exercises to stay in shape.

From the batting side, we've had the luxury of some in-door nets at the practice grounds in Colombo that are proving to be quite valuable preparation for the one-dayers in Oz. So far, Fordie and Corrie are spending at least 6 hours a day throwing to us batters and those playing in the 2-day game are getting their practice in the middle.

It's nice to see Boeta getting some runs again and Neil and Daryll continuing with their good form. Also Nantie picking up 5 wickets in the first innings, especially as he was forced to sit out of the first test with a shin injury. We really missed his aggression and pace up-front and hopefully he'll be fit for selection for the second test in Kandy, which starts on Sunday.

We've had two birthdays in the last two days, Fizz was yesterday on the 26th and Jonty the 27th, today.

On Tuesday evening, our social committee finally arranged a dinner at the Colombo Cricket Café. But it was an evening with a slight difference as firstly we had to wear our t-shirts bought at the beginning of the tour and then we had a Le Mans style tuk- tuk race to get there, the winning tuk-tuk eating free of charge care of the other losing racers.

There were a few stylish tops on display. Corrie produced a purple suede boob tube, Bouchie wore his neon green and pink lycra body hugging top, Polly donned a Mike Tyson sleeveless hooded fish-net shirt boxing top and Neil sported a camouflaged type of leopard skin leotard top. Jonty wore a Hawaiian style XXXXL shirt that was probably bought in error for ex-coach Bob Woolmer.

The hosts put on a video of the 93/94 tour of Australia and there was alot of reminiscing of the games between the players and one certain event that stood out was Peter Kirsten being run out going for the fourth in the World Series final at the SCG.

We're off to Kandy tomorrow and although we're expecting a little cooler weather, we've been told that the likelihood of rain is also to be expected.

This is Andrew Hall signing off for CricInfo.

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