Just in time, England were reminded on the last two days of their second match in Colombo this week of two of the unchanging truths of cricket: the need to marry variations of pace, swing and spin to the essential base of consistent line and length; and the requirement, at least until an innings is established, to play all bowlers on their merits. Patience is the word that links the two fundamentals; it could enable England to win the first Test in Kandy that starts tomorrow and that may decide what is bound to be a close, intense series.

On the evidence of the past two Sri Lanka versus England matches in Kandy, indeed, no one will have a harder match than the two umpires, in this case the Pakistan pairing of Alim Dar, a cool and generally reliable arbiter, and Asad Rauf, newer to this sort of challenge but who appeared to be a decisive decision-maker when standing in England this year. The referee, Jeff Crowe, will surely be aware of the tensions that got out of hand in March 2001, when one local umpire was still allowed to stand and both sides were guilty, in a match narrowly won by England, of frequent speculative appealing. Four years ago Muttiah Muralitharan reported Nasser Hussain, then the England captain, for verbal abuse.

Michael Vaughan and Mahela Jayawardena are decent men, if tough cricketers, and they have a responsibility to ensure that there are no repetitions in a game for which Sri Lanka should be overwhelming favourites. They hold all the advantages on paper, not least far greater experience man for man, knowledge of the only school ground to stage Test cricket, the alluringly scenic Asgiriya set on a plateau in the wooded hills where Kumar Sangakkara learnt his cricket for Trinity College and where Muralitharan, the product of nearby St Anthony’s, has become accustomed to taking wickets as easily as others drink cups of tea. His astonishing record here is 108 wickets from 15 Tests at 16.06.

That is slightly better on average than his 87 at 16.14 at Galle, and second on wickets only to his 143 at 20.94 at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo where the second Test will start only four days after this one is due to finish. It could be said that he is a fairly effective bowler on his home pitches. Everyone expects him to break Shane Warne’s world Test record of 708 wickets by taking at least another five here and he probably will. But there are no guarantees, and not only because England’s two key batsmen, Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen, have scored Test hundreds against him.

The fact is that the imminence of a record can divert a bowler’s concentration and even make captains lose sight of the bigger picture. It undoubtedly happened when Ian Botham was approaching Dennis Lillee’s then Test record of 355 wickets, now only fifteenth on the all-time list. The scene was St John’s in Antigua in 1986 when David Gower bowled him into the hard ground in his keenness to get a fading bowler over the line. One of the consequences was Vivian Richards’s ferocious century off 56 balls.

Not even the fact that Muralitharan is in his home city is any guarantee of his running riot and being the match-winner here. It did not help Richard Hadlee in similar circumstances on his home ground at Lancaster Park in Christchurch against England in 1988. By then Botham’s record had spluttered, after his blazing start, to its final resting place of 383. Hadlee needed only a single scalp to overtake him, on a greentop, too. The likes of Danny Morrison, Ewan Chatfield and Martin Snedden were lethal, but the future Sir Richard? None for 55 from 18 overs.

Muralitharan took four wickets at 100 each in Australia recently but Sangakkara, among others, said that he bowled well. Like most games in which he plays, this one will no doubt be decided by how effectively the opposing batsmen deal with him but if even half the grass that was on the pitch yesterday is left on when the first ball is bowled, there will be plenty of help for Chaminda Vaas, too, in his 100th and, just conceivably, last Test. There is half a suggestion from the Sri Lanka camp that the injury that kept him out in Hobart had something to do with the excellence of the pitch there and something to do with wanting to reach his landmark on home soil. Either way, he is not the bowler he was.

It is in fast bowling that England should hold the advantage on a ground on which Sri Lanka have lost nine of their 20 Tests, easily their worst home record. Stephen Harmison duly ran in and bowled fast in the nets yesterday but there is no reason to think that England will not stick to their plan to mix the accurate Ryan Sidebottom and Matthew Hoggard with the more incisive, less consistent, James Anderson, who, like the other two, can get reverse and conventional swing and bowl cutters when the ball has lost its overall shine and hardness.

The weather, touch wood, looks to be set for days of dry heat at around 30C (86F) but at 1,600 feet this will be the most comfortable match of the three. It proceeds despite the two bombs in Colombo on Wednesday but the civil war that so drains this country’s resources may yet ruin what promises to be a fascinating contest.

The teams

Sri Lanka (from): D P M D Jayawardena (captain), S T Jayasuriya, W U Tharanga, M G Vandort, K C Sangakkara, L P C Silva, J Mubarak, H A P W Jayawardena, M Muralitharan, W P U C J Vaas, C R D Fernando, S L Malinga, C M Bandara, W R S de Silva.

England (from): M P Vaughan (captain), A N Cook, I R Bell, K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, O A Shah, R S Bopara, M J Prior, P Mustard, G P Swann, S C J Broad, S J Harmison, R J Sidebottom, M J Hoggard, M S Panesar, J M Anderson. Umpires: Alim Dar and Asad Rauf (both Pakistan).

Match referee: J J Crowe (New Zealand). Television: Tomorrow: Live on Sky Sports 2 from 5am. Radio: Live on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 5am.

72.00 Kevin Pietersen’s batting average in three Tests against Sri Lanka

91.38 Kumar Sangakkara’s batting average in the 15 Tests he has played since the start of 2006

73 Monty Panesar’s Test wicket tally since 2006

— Exclusive statistics from cricinfo.com

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