Cricket: Despite battling performances from Ian Bell and Matt Prior proved England lost by 88 runs to Sri Lanka in the first Test at Asgiriya.
Bell and Prior spent more than two-and-a-half hours together repelling the hosts before falling within the space of three Muttiah Muralitharan deliveries on the final evening.
With shadows covering the entire square, Murali then claimed a fortunate leg-before dismissal of Ryan Sidebottom - replays highlighted a huge inside edge - to leave England nine wickets down.
Set an improbable 350-run victory target, Michael Vaughan's team's fate was sealed when Lasith Malinga bowled Matthew Hoggard with a searing yorker.
Although there were officially nine overs remaining, in reality there were only 20 more minutes to survive as bad light has not allowed play beyond that time this week.
England appeared to be sliding towards an inevitable defeat when they lost their fifth wicket of the day, and sixth overall shortly after lunch.
But a defiant seventh-wicket stand between Bell (74) and Prior (63) took the contest deep into the evening session.
Both men were then bowled by world-record holder Murali: Prior dismissed by one which skidded on in similar manner to the one which did for Paul Collingwood in the first innings and Bell undone by an off-spinner which he over-compensated for.
Having waited until his 32nd over of the innings for an initial breakthrough, Murali then claimed a third in quick succession when left-hander Sidebottom was given out by umpire Asad Rauf.
Bell's composed approach resulted in a 153-ball 50 while Prior addressed a run of poor Test scores with a gutsy effort.
Wicketkeeper Prior took a serious blow to the helmet for his trouble, when a Dilhara Fernando bouncer hurried him on 31, and survived a confident caught behind appeal on 34 when he cut hard at Muralitharan.
The only wicket of the afternoon came via spin when debutant Ravi Bopara perished.
Twenty-two-year-old Bopara struck 34 before being trapped leg before by left-armer Sanath Jayasuriya 10 minutes after lunch.
Essex's Bopara edged between wicketkeeper and slip off Dilhara Fernando to get off the mark but played a composed innings, including a stellar over when he struck a trio of fours off Muralitharan: a cover drive, square cut and leg glance.
But a probing over from Jayasuriya, on his final day of Test cricket, left England deeper in trouble - having had one lbw shout declined and found the edge with another delivery, one went on with the arm to hit Bopara. It may have been outside the line, buy Asad Rauf ruled in favour of the bowler.
The middle-order's primary target was to eat up time after Chaminda Vaas celebrated his 100th Test with a devastating new-ball spell.
Left-armer Vaas, who dismissed Alastair Cook before the close on the fourth evening, sent back overnight pair Michael Vaughan and James Anderson this morning.
Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood then perished to Dilhara Fernando as the tourists were five down at lunch.
The difficulty of England's task - it would have needed something extraordinary to record a victory - was summed up in the first over of the day when a good-length delivery from Lasith Malinga to Anderson exploded from a length and flew over wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene's head. A draw was secured here four years ago when captain Vaughan led a 140-over rearguard with a defiant hundred.
His first ball today found the boundary from a thick inside edge off Vaas but his next edge proved fatal as he was drawn to one angled across him to be caught behind.
Nightwatchman Anderson fell in Vaas' next over, the 11th of the innings, when failure to get forward saw him defeated by one which shaped away to hit off stump.
Pietersen, batting with a cracked finger in his right hand, drove handsomely to the boundary on four occasions and appeared in good touch.
But he was undone by his decision to stay on the back foot when a shooter from Fernando cannoned into off stump less than halfway up off the bottom of the bat.
Fast bowler Fernando doubled his wicket tally thanks to a loose drive from Collingwood, which Kumar Sangakkara pocketed at cover.
A swarm of bees held up play yesterday and another danger stopped things temporarily this morning as corrugated roofing was blown off the top of a stand, sending the crowd ducking for cover.
Four English supporters required medical attention after being struck by the sheeting.
One man went to hospital after being hit in the chest, another was nursing a sore back while a woman and a man both needed treatment for gashes to their legs.