‘History is there to be rewritten’

GRAEME SWANN has backed England to make their highest ever fourth-innings chase after declaring “history is there to be rewritten”.

England need to reach 340 to win the first test cricket match against Sri Lanka, eight more than their best successful chase against Australia in 1928.

Swann has little regard for past form, though, and has backed his side to record a famous win.

They will resume on the fourth morning on 111 for two, with Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen in position. “I’d say we’re just favourites,” he said. “I don’t like statistics. Just because somebody won a game in 1912 chasing 290 or someone got 350 in the Kerry Packer era doesn’t mean anything. This is 2012. History is there to be rewritten.

“I don’t think we need any genius, I think we just need a bit of good old fashioned rolling your sleeves up and getting your head down.

“The way KP and Trotty batted at the end is exactly what we need to do tomorrow. They got their heads down, they kept out the good ones, they made batting look as serene as it’s going to get out there.

“People who actually apply themselves are hard to shift on that pitch.”

Swann, who had completed his 12th fivewicket haul earlier in the day, is England’s most ready optimist but even he admitted a sense of frustration had crept in at the end of the Sri Lanka innings.

The last two wickets yielded a total of 87 runs, with 46 added after a no-ball denied Stuart Broad the final scalp.

“Sure there have been moments of frustration,” he said.

“That next 40 minutes (after the no-ball) hurt a little bit. You’re looking at a chase of 285, 290 and thinking ‘we’re going to win this’.

“At 340, you think it’s maybe tipped back to a 50-50 game.”

Swann believes England’s first-innings horror show – they mustered just 193 between them on a pitch Mahela Jayawardene had milked 180 from – will inspire them to do better this time.

“We’re all disappointed with the first innings. To make the whole innings last 40-odd overs just wasn’t acceptable and that’s not just the top six, that’s all 11 players.

“But the way we bounced back from that proved this team doesn’t dwell on things that are in the past.

“We probably had our best session of the winter after that, getting five wickets.

“That’s a signal of the strength of this team.”

Sri Lanka wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene, who made a momentum-shifting half-century at the end of the Sri Lankan innings, is confident the hosts can see England off for the second time.

“We have the psychological advantage because they need to score more than 300,” he said.

“We have to be patient and do the basics well to get wickets in the morning.

“We have a big chance but we have to come out and bowl well in the morning.”

Picture: AP. Graeme Swann (second right) celebrates the wicket of Sri Lankan batsman Suraj Randiv (left) with his team-mates.