England set out on a historic chase

England recovered from two crucial blows to stay afloat in their tough run chase to win the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle on Wednesday. Scorecard

England recovered from two crucial blows to stay afloat in their tough run chase to win the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle on Wednesday.

England-s-Graeme-Swann-celebrates-after-dismissing-Sri-Lankan-cricketer-Suraj-Randiv-during-the-third-day-of-their-opening-Test-match-in-Galle-AFP-Photo-Lakruwan-Wanniarachchi

The tourists, set a history-defying target of 340, reached 111 for two by stumps on the third day on a dry pitch that has made batting progressively difficult.

The world number one Test side lost openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook cheaply, before Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen repaired the damage by adding 63 for the unbroken third wicket.

Trott was unbeaten on 40 and Pietersen was on 29, with England still needing 229 runs with eight wickets in hand.

England, who will slip to number two behind South Africa if they lose the series, have never chased down such a big fourth-innings target before in their Test history.

Their highest successful chase is 332-7 against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground way back in 1928. In Asia, it is 209-1 against Bangladesh in Dhaka in March, 2010.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 318 and 214 (P Jayawardene 61*, Swann 6-82) England 193 and 111-2.

Brief scores: Australia 153 for 2 (Watson 69, M Hussey 59*) beat West Indies 150 for 7 (Pollard 54*, Christian 3-27) by eight wickets.