For Graham Thorpe, Alec Stewart and Darren Gough, it must have been an awful feeling of déjà vu. Those three were fielding - or feeling the heat - when Sanath Jayasuriya unleashed his first big assault on England's bowlers, in the 1995-96 World Cup quarter-final. In that match, at Faisalabad, Jayasuriya slammed 82 in 44 balls as Sri Lanka made a mockery of England's laboriously compiled 235 in 50 overs. Today he went on to complete a century - surprisingly, his first in one-dayers against England - and finished with 112 from 87 balls. It was riveting stuff, unless you happened to be Matthew Hoggard (4-0-53-1) or Paul Collingwood (5-0-49-0).

And unless you were a rabid England supporter, it was very welcome, too. Jayasuriya has looked a little lost this summer - never more so than in that dramatic England run-chase at Old Trafford, when he seemed transfixed and forgot all about field-placing. Even before that, in the first Test at Lord's, Jayasuriya had dropped two straightforward slip catches off Michael Vaughan when England were digging in for the draw.

In the Tests, Jayasuriya seemed to have one cunning plan when the Sri Lankans were fielding: put Murali on. He seemed to forget that the sorcerer's apprentices nearly won the first Test without Merlin. If Plan A failed, Jayasuriya was soon scratching away what remains of his hair. He seemed bereft of ideas.

And worst of all, his batting form had gone to pot. Only 99 runs in five innings in the Tests led him to drop himself down the order for the final Test, and then he was out for 12 in the first one-dayer against England. Rumblings about dressing-room discord couldn't have helped his state of mind. He needed a big innings to clear away the cobwebs.

So today he decided to hit his way out of trouble. The bowling was a little wayward, which helped. But the ball was soon disappearing to distant parts of darkest Headingley. The TV cameraman at square cover was rather perturbed to find himself under aerial bombardment when Gough sent down a widish one. There were four more sixes, all of them clean pick-ups - and one of those, which scudded over wide mid-on, was an astonishing strong-arm jab. It was murderous, but it was also magnificent.

Welcome back, Sanath. We've missed you.

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