The start of the final Test was delayed at least until noon today (6.30am GMT) after a heavy shower late yesterday afternoon persuaded the umpires and the referee to make what may be an unprecedented postponement of the start of play on the day before the match. Jeff Crowe, the ICC referee, informed the teams of his decision after Daryl Harper and Asad Rauf had looked with concern at the state of part of the outfield that, at its extremities, resembles a village football ground after a rainy match on the last weekend before Christmas.

The thunderstorm, a frequent evening occurrence here that threatens more interruptions, even if the morning weather is kinder today, further frustrated the frantic efforts of hundreds of ground workers to get the outfield, scoreboard and spectator facilities into suitable condition. In the case of the outfield, the word suitable is, unfortunately, relative, because it is bound to remain bumpy throughout.

The painful truth is that the heavy plant needed for the new buildings at the Galle International Stadium has prevented it from bedding down to anything like the standard of a normal Test outfield.

The tsunami in 2004 ruined the ground, but it is more than debatable how efficient the rebuilding process has been and the decision by Sri Lanka Cricket to go ahead with the match regardless has had an element of wishful thinking about it. The hope is that everyone will make the most of an imperfect job, but if the pitch looks well enough prepared in the circumstances, the surrounds need more rolling and mowing in fine weather.

Team planning had to proceed as normal yesterday. Although England were undecided about their bowling attack, it is the batsmen who need to look to their laurels if the series is to be drawn by Saturday. Michael Vaughan is hovering just outside the top 20 in the official rankings of world Test batsmen, largely a legacy of his year’s absence from the game in 2006, but Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell and Alastair Cook are in that elite group.

All the less creditable, then, that none of the top five in the order has yet made a hundred in this series, despite two pitches on which top-class players should have been capable of booking in for bed and breakfast, especially in Colombo last week.

The problem of squandered wickets outweighed yesterday’s question of whether Graeme Swann should become the third England player in the series to win his first cap, at the expense either of Stephen Harmison, who has an ear infection, or Matthew Hoggard, whose back may be considered a risk. A final reading of the pitch and assessment of the weather were the main reasons for delaying that decision after the bad news had been given to Owais Shah, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Phil Mustard. Swann, the unlucky Shah and the engagingly gregarious “Colonel” were the only players to have taken no part in the first two Tests. Perhaps if Shah had made a big hundred, rather than the auspicious 88 that he scored in his first Test innings in Bombay in March 2006, he would still be in England’s XI.

“Converting” is an art that exercises cricketers as well as Jonny Wilkinson. It can be exaggerated, because better a succession of fifties such as the five that Bell has scored in his past six Test innings than a row of single-figure scores. Nevertheless the various ways in which Bell has found to get out in that time have frustrated Peter Moores, the England head coach, as well as the batsman.

Bell has scored 17 “unconverted” fifties to go with his six hundreds in 32 matches. From the same number of games Pietersen has ten centuries and ten fifties. Vaughan’s tally from his 72 Tests shows a similar balance – 17 hundreds, 17 fifties. The two who do better when it comes to seeing the job through are Collingwood, with five hundreds and seven fifties from 29 matches, and Cook, surely a future Test captain, with six hundreds and eight fifties in his 23 matches.

Time for them all to heed the prayer attributed to Sir Francis Drake: grant us also to know that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same unto the end, until it be thoroughly finished, that yieldeth the true glory. And the same goes for all working so hard to complete the reborn Galle stadium.

As Pietersen, perhaps the safest bet for a hundred here, eloquently expressed it this week: “We’re not going to talk badly about the ground, we’re not going to talk negatively about anything that’s gone on because of the simple fact of the catastrophe that happened three years back. We know how much this country loves its cricket and these people here I’m sure cannot wait to watch some cricket being played on that ground that was under water. We’ll do everything we can to get the game under way. In a year’s time or six months’ time it’s going to be an absolutely gorgeous cricket ground.”

Eric Tindill, the oldest surviving Test cricketer, has his 97th birthday today. As well as five caps as a wicketkeeper for New Zealand, he played for the All Blacks at fly half against England at Twickenham in 1936. He is thought to be the third-oldest living rugby international. Comparing his tours to England, Tindill said: “We got paid better with the cricket team but had to play nearly every day. On the rugby tour we had a lot of spare time.” He once caught Don Bradman for 11. “He didn’t walk,” Tindill said.

— Patrick Kidd