If he regains his form and confidence then I agree with you 100%, a fit Harmison is worth his place in any side.

Yea - frustrating, the same with Simon Jones and Flintoff, and for the batting - no player has shown he can fill Trescothick's boots'

Agreed - then I have always advocated that England play their best with a 5 man bowling attack - this allows individual players to have bad days.

Exactly right - there is not room for the both of them IMO.

Good points - no they don't learn, in fact the selectors have hit new lows since the 5-0 drubbing in 2006 against Australia - medium pacers alone will never win test series on subcontinental, or any wickets for that matter.

__________________
Ern

England 5 down by lunch and Murali has not even got a wicket yet! Pietersen (whose bubble is looking increasingly ready to burst) and Collingwood are gone and though Bell is still there, he does not seem to enjoy this sort of situation. England will struggle to save this one.

Well we are being outfought and outthought in this game and are heading limply to an inevitable defeat.You have to say this has been awful by England after an excellent first day set them up to what should have been a victory.Credit to Sri Lanka for showing what England haven't (some bollocks for the fight),much like the football team you wonder where we go now.

Not much you can do with one that keeps that low.

Bell collects his 2nd 50 of the match (his 4th in a row in test cricket) much to Ern's disgust and is the only hope for us.

196-6 now.Bopara did ok but was out for 34 and Bell and Prior have now put on 57.

The new ball will finish it off after tea.

LOL. Excellent stuff from Bell who is undoubtedly a class act. He brought up his 16th 50 in only 31 matches, the stats speak for themselves.

Not quite Greg. It is very dark out there and rain has been forecast for later, so I cannot imagine play going on for too long after tea. Murali has been disappointing but like you say, Sri Lankas last hope is Vaas with the new ball. with 24 overs left of play and 10 more to the new ball, I think that England may only need to face about 12 overs with the new ball. If Bell and Prior are there, then England may well save this game.

__________________
434, world record for the shortest period. Whos choking now?

Brett Lee's record is improving, Harmison's is going in the opposite direction.

I am just being pessimistic so i don't get my hopes up too high.

209-6 at tea,we now have a chance thanks to Bell,Prior and Bopara.I still think we will lose but at least a few players who get questioned about their temperament have shown some fight.

Bell's batted very well.

Bopara wasn't out. The ball hit him outside the line of the stumps and his bat was very close to the ball too (offering a shot methinks). Very unfortunate.

Prior's showing some resistance. Good on him.

It's tea now. Hopefully it will get dark over there soon, or rain!

On the contrary... there's a LOT you can do (especially when playing on a pitch where variable bounce seems quite likely). If you've any doubts, go and ask any batsman from a generation ago: that's what batsmen routinely dealt with. I'd go so far as to say it's a key element of cricket - an element sadly lost on many modern pitches.

The TMS commentary noted that Pietersen did little to help himself, being rather caught on the crease where he might have got right over his front foot.

ps. Hussain was a master of playing on pitches where balls kept low: coped very well indeed.