Russel Arnold came to the Sri Lankans' rescue with an exhilarating century against Durham to secure a draw after they had been forced to follow on 302 runs behind in their first innings when bowled out for 167. With the Lord's Test just a week away, this result will put the tourists in much better heart than seemed likely at one stage.

Arnold included 17 fours in his innings of 112 that came from 134 balls, and was influential in the Sri Lankans reaching a respectable 282 for four at the close. His performance set the tone for a display of counter-attacking that dispelled the memory of a woeful first innings.

He added 109 for the first wicket with Marvan Atapattu before Graeme Bridge made the first indentation in the Sri Lankan order. Then Bridge struck again to bowl Kumar Sangakkara. Mahela Jayawardene looked to be hitting the ball well, especially when hoisting a huge six on the leg side, but he was caught when allowing himself to become a little over-ambitious.

The fall of wickets at the other end did not inhibit Arnold who went on to his century before slicing a square cut off the bowling of Nicky Hatch to be caught. At that point, Durham's bowlers surely held hopes of running through the rest of the order as they had in the morning, but Aravinda De Silva and Hashan Tillekeratne shared an unbroken stand for the fifth wicket worth 86 to ensure a draw.

Earlier in the day, the one redeeming feature of the first innings had been the batting of De Silva. While seven wickets fell in the space of just 24 overs, De Silva appeared composed and comfortable in his 85 ball innings that produced 53 attractive runs.

Things started to go wrong for Sri Lanka as early as the second ball of the day. Resuming on 92 for three, the first wicket went down when Atapattu was caught at third slip off the bowling of Hatch.

Hatch and Ian Hunter kept the break on the batsmen – De Silva excepted – and it was Hunter who claimed the next wicket when Tillekeratne was lbw half-forward for eight.

Thilan Samaraweera clipped Marc Symington to mid-wicket after a stay of 33 balls for six and, although Chaminda Vaas showed aggression with consecutive boundaries off Hatch, wickets began to fall with a worrying regularity for the Sri Lankans.

De Silva's fifty had come up off 81 balls, but Symington had him caught behind and then had Nuwan Zoysa lbw two balls later. With Vaas falling to Hatch in the next over and last man Merenna Amerasinghe unable to bat because of injury, Sri Lanka faced a daunting task to avoid defeat, but they accomplished it in some style.

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