Sri Lanka need inspiration, and Lord's surroundings may provide it

NOT even the most optimistic of the England players and coaching staff, as well as the handful of spectators in Cardiff, could have imagined the drama of the Sri Lankans' second innings on Monday afternoon. With only 50 overs to survive and a deficit of just 96 to erase, they were blown away in under two hours of mayhem to lose by an innings.

The pace and hostility of Chris Tremlett, combined with the skills of Graeme Swann and the ineptitude of the Sri Lankan batting under pressure handed a demoralising and embarrassing defeat to the tourists.

If they need inspiration and a new focus before they take the field at Lord's today for the second Test, they can take it from playing at the home of cricket, their miraculous escape with a draw on their last visit, and the fact that they can't capitulate so tamely twice in succession. The odds on the Sri Lankans taking anything from the game will depend on two factors. How their two world-class Test batsmen in Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara fare after failures in Cardiff and how their inexperienced players cope with the Lord's history and atmosphere.

Touring teams always raise their game at Lord's and Stuart Law, the interim Sri Lankan coach, will hope the surroundings inspire his charges.

The perceived wisdom before the series began was that England's batsmen would find run scoring easy against a depleted Sri Lankan attack missing Malinga and the retired Mularitharan and Vaas, and that the Sri Lankan batsmen would struggle against an English attack in early British summer conditions.

There was little evidence to the contrary in Cardiff.

With the injury to James Anderson, England will choose his replacement from Steven Finn or Jade Dernbach. If Finn is picked the English seam attack will contain three bowlers over 6ft 6in tall, a daunting prospect for the Sri Lankan batsmen. However, Dernbach would be the like-for-like replacement as he offers the same attributes of swing and seam as Anderson, and, in the Lions games against the tourists, he took nine wickets to Finn's three. Andy Flower and his fellow selectors seem to always seek consistency of selection and this would point to Finn getting the nod, following his successful Ashes series and initial selection ahead of Dernbach for the first Test.

Of the home team batsmen, most eyes as ever will be on Kevin Pietersen who failed in the first Test, falling to his nemesis of left arm spin yet again. After an undistinguished start to the season, he will be desperate to silence his critics. Lord's is a happy hunting ground for Pietersen as he averages over 62 in his last 15 innings at the home of cricket.Sri Lanka will be hoping that Dilhara Fernando, their most experienced seam bowler will recover from injury in time to play as their attack posed no problems whatsoever for England in the first Test.

If he recovers, it is likely that Ajantha Mendis will be the bowler to make way.

For all their problems on the final day at Cardiff, the tourists did compete over the first four rain-interrupted days and will have to focus on these positives ahead of today's game. On their last visit in 2006, the Sri Lankans batted out nearly 200 overs to salvage a draw on the last evening.

They will need the same resolve and determination to leave on Tuesday with pride intact against a supremely confident England side.