Stewart provides selectors with a headache

With one eye on the giant screen showing the England's heroics in Nigata and the other on Sri Lanka's wayward bowlers, Alec Stewart cruised authoritatively towards his 15th Test century, an achievement that provides the English selectors a headache.

As he raised his arms in elation, shortly before the final whistle in Japan, a match that was watched by 6000 ticket holders in the Old Trafford car park, the chairman of the selectors thoughts will have been on the line up for India's first Test at Lords next month.

The team management have thrown their full support behind young Jamie Foster after a promising but by no means faultless performance during the winter. They gave him an ECB contract and shown a willingness to start building for the future. He's now returning to full fitness after breaking his arm in the nets and speculation is rife as to when he might return.

But Stewart, despite being 39 years old and the proud owner of 118 Test caps for England, has shown no such willingness to step aside. And after successful surgery on both elbows he appears to be fit as a fiddle.

Stewart has made it clear that he wants to have one further crack at the Ashes this winter and play in the World Cup that follows. And he has left the selectors with a headache then so be it: "I've performed - which I have done for 118 Test matches - and if you don't perform you get left out."

"I read in the Daily Mail that it might be my last game if I didn't do anything special - so I will be interested to read Monday's edition. Whether its my first Test match or my 118th all I ever done is to try and perform. It might be my last one - it could be anyone's last one."

He defended his performance in the series: "I've had a not out, a run out and a good delivery, so you could say that I had been out once before this. Jamie (Foster) is a good lad and I have enjoyed working with him, but there is no more pressure on me than any other player."

Foster is one of a handful of young wicket-keepers - Mark Wallace (Glamorgan), Andy Pratt (Durham) the others - with the potential to replace Stewart, but for the meantime Nasser Hussain and the selectors will think very carefully about discarding a player whose presence allows for the inclusion of five bowlers.

But although he batted with verve today, striking the ball crisply throughout, the selectors may still conclude that this was a blip in a general trend of declining form - this was, after all, his first hundred in his last 31 innings. It would, however, be a very brave conclusion.

England's selectors are not the only ones with puzzles to solve - Sri Lanka' s need to identify just what has gone wrong with their bowling. For the third consecutive innings England have passed 500, a first for England.

Muttiah Muralitharan's shoulder problem has clearly been one important reason - he is still moving gingerly and not bowling with his normal consistency, as is the perplexing below par performance of Chaminda Vaas. Ironically, away from the dusty strips of the subcontinent, where fast bowlers rarely prosper, he has proved less threatening, struggling to swing the new Dukes ball. After 144 overs he's collected just four wickets.

But today, at least, he enjoyed the honour of becoming only the second Sri Lankan after Muttiah Muralitharan to take 200 wickets. And if the celebrations seemed strangely muted after Russel Arnold clung on a laser bullet at second slip it's because, bizarrely, it was the second time that he has celebrated reaching the landmark.

"By my calculations, I thought I had reached 200 Test wickets in the Asian Test Championship in March," Vaas revealed. "My teammates congratulated me but when we got back to Sri Lanka Dav (Whatmore) found out that I was four wickets short."

Passing 200 had been one of his key tour targets. Unfortunately, his lack of wickets takes the gloss off the achievement: "My job is to take wickets, but it hasn't really happened for me here. I am happy with the way that I have been bowling but luck has not gone my way."

And the lack of support at the other end has been frustrating: "When one bowler is doing well haven't capitalised at the other end. There is no point being tight at one end and then giving away runs at the other end."

"Throughout the series we have only bowled well in patches, whilst they have batted really well, showing their experience in these conditions. We've been really disappointed by the way that we have played in this series. We haven' t batted or bowled well at all."

He's now set his sights on taking 300 wickets: "I have more cricket in my legs and I want to go on and take another 100 wickets." Which is a much more realistic goal than his fanciful final comment: " We still have a good chance here if we can up near 500; the ball is turning and Murali will be a handful."