Vaughan sees the positives

Vaughan: Real positives

There's a lot of real positives we can take out of the Test match. I thought on days one and two we were excellent.

Michael Vaughan
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Michael Vaughan was determined to talk up the positives despite seeing his England side slip to defeat late on the final day of the first Test against Sri Lanka.

The tourists looked on course to secure a draw as Ian Bell and Matt Prior put on a 109-run stand for the seventh wicket which frustrated the hosts well into the final session.

But Muttiah Muralitharan broke their resistance as he removed both men, and Ryan Sidebottom, to set up a victory which was confirmed when Lasith Malinga bowled Matthew Hoggard.

It was a cruel end for England with safety almost in sight in Kandy, but Vaughan insisted after the match there was plenty for his side to build on heading into the second Test in Colombo which starts on Sunday.

"We fought really hard today, Belly and Matt Prior's partnership was exceptional in the middle period," he told Sky Sports. "But full credit to Sri Lanka, they fought right until the end.

"There's a lot of real positives we can take out of the Test match. I thought on days one and two we were excellent.

"Sri Lanka fought their way back into it with some good bowling from Murali and then some outstanding batting by Kumar Sangakkara.

Tough ask

"Their target in the last innings was always going to be a real tough ask for us to bat out - certainly when we lost early wickets this morning it made it more difficult, but the partnership between Belly and Matty Prior got us back into it and towards the end we thought we were going to get over the line. But Lasith Malinga produced a great delivery to get rid of (Matthew) Hoggard.

"So we've got a lot of positives to take, but obviously we go to Colombo one-nil down and we've going to have to fight back hard in Colombo to make sure we get it one-one there."

Vaughan struggled to put his finger on just why the game had got away from England once the tourists had established a first-innings lead, but remained confident the three-match series was far from over.

"We did very well in the first innings and then Murali's bowling pegged us back to only a 93-run lead which was still a good effort having been 180-6," he added.

"Their batting obviously got them ahead of us, but we always thought we were going to get the draw out of the game towards the end but that wasn't to be.

"We've had tremendous support here once again and hopefully we can get to Colombo, play a little bit better and make sure it's one-one going into the last Test at Galle."

Hoggard's fitness

Vaughan also confirmed that Matthew Hoggard remains a doubt for the second Test with a stiff back, but hinted he could yet be fit to make the starting XI in Colombo.

"He's alright," he said off the Yorkshire seamer.

"He's obviously got a stiff back and we'll have to monitor him over the next few days, he's obviously got to be a doubt for the next Test match but he'll show a lot of character I'm sure."

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