England's spinners came good on the first day of the Third Test against Sri Lanka at Colombo, reducing the home side to 221/7 at the close.

After captain Sanath Jayasuriya won his 16th toss in 18 games, he had no hesitation in batting first on a pitch considerably drier than a normal Sinhalese Sports Club wicket.

England dropped Graeme Hick, who had scored 27 runs in four innings on the tour, and replaced him with Michael Vaughan. Nasser Hussain, who has been suffering with a groin injury sustained in the Second Test, is playing, as is Ashley Giles who has a niggling Achilles problem.

Sri Lanka opted to include Dilhara Fernando instead of an extra spinner. The young fast bowler plays his club cricket at the SSC and the Sri Lankans hope that he will be able to exploit the greater bounce of the SSC wicket. Sri Lanka have also replaced off spinner Kumar Dharmasena with orthodox left arm spinner Dinuk Hettiarachchi.

The hosts were rocked by the loss of Marvan Atapattu for a duck in only the second over of the day. He was clean bowled by a full delivery from Andrew Caddick, which looked to have swung between bat and pad before hitting the off stump, leaving Sri Lanka on 2/1.

However, Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara repaired the damage to take Sri Lanka to 88/1 at lunch. Jayasuriya's innings was not without alarm; he was hit on the helmet early on by Darren Gough and twice nearly played on to his stumps.

Sangakkara meanwhile showed once again what a fine prospect he is for Sri Lanka. The elegant left-hander's knock was full of well-timed wristy strokes. He was particularly harsh on Craig White whom he hit for three boundaries in the 17th over. White had, however, been unlucky to have a catch drop just short of Vaughan at second slip in the previous over.

Immediately after lunch, England made the breakthrough. Gough bowled two fast bouncers at Sangakkara and then a slower, wider delivery that tempted the batsmen into a drive. He only succeeded in finding Vaughan in the covers, five short of his half-century.

Sri Lanka were then 88/2, a position which became 108/3 when Robert Croft had Jayasuriya caught at square point by White for 45.

Aravinda de Silva and Mahela Jayawardena took Sri Lanka to 143/3 shortly before tea but Ashley Giles appeared to be unlucky to have a bad/pad appeal against de Silva turned down when the batsman had made 22.

At tea Sri Lanka were 158/3 but the last session belonged to the tourists.

De Silva's wicket fell when he tried to work Giles through mid-wicket. The ball straightened, caught his pad and bat before flying to the left of Vaughan at silly point who took a sharp left-handed catch. He had made 38 from 136 balls and had added 97 runs with Jayawardene for the fourth wicket. It was Giles' second wicket of the series.

Giles and Croft were now on top and a succession of Sri Lankan wickets fell. Russel Arnold was trapped in front by Giles for a duck to leave Sri Lanka on 209/5 and seven runs later Tillakaratne Dilshan also fell lbw to Croft for five.

And just before the close Croft caught and bowled Jayawardene for 71, a prized wicket for England.

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