The task gets trickier for Angelo

Sri Lanka hold the trophy between these two sides. Not because of a win over England earned in dust pits at Colombo and Galle, but one they claimed in early season England, at Headingley, with Yorkshire-coloured clouds. That was a spectacular effort.

Yet, when they arrived this time, people were whispering about England going unbeaten during the entire summer. That was before Sri Lanka had even played a tour match. Not one of their batsmen have been mentioned more than the two they didn't bring, Mahela and Kumar. In their last five series they had won one. And their chairman of selectors Sanath Jayasuriya played one of the most audacious shots, even for him, when he claimed that Sri Lanka had the world's best bowling attack.

The holders of the trophy suddenly were being treated like an appetiser for an English banquet, with their best players not here, their form seemingly retired with them, and their bowling attack had been put under more pressure than a violent Ben Stokes attack.

Angelo Mathews is used to playing in tricky situations, this was tricky before the coin toss.

Then they arrived at Headingley, and the pitch was green. So they bowled. Those bowlers, Sanath's best men, struggled with the new ball. The first drinks break happened, and then the sun came out, this team that had been written off was staring at a big first innings score. They threw the ball to their latest gamble, an allrounder who can make two T20 hundreds in a week, but one who his own former team-mate, Mahela Jayawardene, seemed confused about when he came on to bowl.

Then it was magic, it was like the Headingley of two years ago. Dasun Shanaka didn't bowl within-himself medium-pace, he seemed to throw everything he had at the other end, and in a moment, he had two more Test wickets than he had given up runs, and over 10% of his career first-class wicket tally.

It didn't stop. England had lost their first five wickets before they had scored 100. Mathews was in control, his bowlers were swinging the ball, Shanaka had been bowling pure fairy dust and Sri Lanka were a solid hour from heading for victory.

There is a theory that Jonny Bairstow doesn't like the short ball. That at Test level, when the ball is at him, he is weak. Sri Lanka had certainly heard that. They decided from the start that Bairstow would be bounced out. They tried two men out on the hook. They tried leg-side heavy fields. They tried men in leg-side catching positions. They tried around the wicket. They tried, and failed.

Bairstow often gets bowled. But a look at the seamers' beehive to Bairstow would suggest the stumps were some kind of a forbidden zone the ball physically couldn't hit. Like Bairstow had brought a forcefield with him, rather than it just being stupid bowling. Even when the umpire gave him out lbw the ball wasn't hitting the stumps and it was overturned.

Bairstow wasn't playing an innings of carnage and destruction, he wasn't taking Sri Lanka apart one blow at a time, he was just batting, and with him and Alex Hales together, they put on the sort of partnership that changes the game, and makes momentum look like a buzzword.

But Sri Lanka had another chance to end it. Nuwan Pradeep dropped a catch. A simple catch. What he saw was a death ball covered in razor wire that was operated by a super villain, and he had the balance of a building that was being imploded. What we saw was a mistimed shot heading slowly towards a man who seemed more destined to end up swallowing the pitch than catching a simple caught and bowled. All this while Hales was scoring three runs in 50 minutes, a near Nick Compton state of self-denial. It could have been Sri Lanka's morning, instead it was Hales and Bairstow's, and then Finn and Bairstow's, but mostly Bairstow's.

But Sri Lanka weren't batting with a massive total to chase, they were batting in the afternoon when the Test should be at its calmest. And 32 balls into their innings their captain arrived in one of those tricky positions he knows so much about: 12 for 3.

No one was mentioning Mahela and Kumar, no one had time. Sri Lankan batsmen were checking in and out quicker than you would a hotel made of giant alien rats. If they had a tactic to overcome the swinging ball, they forget to use it. If they had an idea of how to play in England, they forgot it. They never even flirted with something that should be called a total.

It was only Angelo that looked right. It was Angelo who very nearly had Bairstow lbw. It was Angelo who very nearly had Hales caught at slip. It was now Angelo, striding out, having to calm and carry his team. At one stage he was saving wickets at his end, but also stopping Chandimal from a suicidal second run. He couldn't save him forever, but Sri Lanka's first, and only, partnership of note was when Angelo batted with Lahiru Thirimanne.

It was as calm as you can be with your first four men gone, a green pitch, Yorkshire coloured-clouds, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Steven Finn moving the ball, Mahela in the comm box, and Kumar playing for Surrey. But Angelo had been there before, his batting style should be called "right hand rearguard".

Then Anderson hit his pad, and the umpire thought it was out. But Angelo was across the crease, and asked Thirimanne if he should review. Obviously he should. If Mathews had taken a flame thrower to his stumps after being caught at mid-on slogging, he should review in this situation. Sri Lanka hadn't used one review, and they were one Angelo innings from complete annihilation. There were people travelling on buses going past the ground who thought it was obvious he should review. The entire nation of Sri Lanka agreed with them.

Except Thirimanne.

He told his captain, his best batsman, his country's only hope, to leave the crease. Suddenly this didn't look like a team with the best bowling attack, a team that had won last time, or even a team that Angelo could save. It looked like a team that was in rush, a mad dash, a screaming naked panic-riddled sprint to get the trophy back into England's hands.

Angelo has been in tricky positions before, and he has saved Sri Lanka so many times from those tricky positions. This time he turned and walked. Sri Lanka's hopes went with him.