Cricket: Graeme Swann predicts historic target will fall

GRAEME Swann has backed England to make their highest- ever fourth-innings chase after declaring “history is there to be rewritten”.

England need to reach 340 to win the first Test against Sri Lanka, eight more than their best successful chase against Australia in 1928. Swann has little regard for past form, though, and has backed his side, who will resume on the fourth morning on 111 for two, with Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen in position.

“I’d say we’re just favourites,” he said. “I don’t like statistics. Just because somebody won a game in 1912 chasing 290 or someone got 350 in the Kerry Packer era doesn’t mean anything. This is 2012. History is there to be rewritten.

“We just need a bit of good old fashioned rolling your sleeves up and getting your head down. The way KP and Trotty batted at the end is exactly what we need to do.”

But Sri Lanka wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene, who made a momentum-shifting half-century at the end of the Sri Lankan innings, is also confident. He said: “We have the psychological advantage because they need to score more than 300. We have to be patient and do the basics well to get wickets in the morning. We have a big chance but we have to come out and bowl well.”