Sri Lanka has negotiated one of cricket's great escapes, batting through the final day at Lord's to draw the first Test against England.

The Sri Lankans, forced to follow on after scoring only 192 in reply to England's 6-551 declared, extended their second-innings overnight score of 6-381 to 9-537 when play was called off because of bad light.

It was the highest second innings score ever recorded at Lord's.

Number 10 Nuwan Kulasekara, with a highest score of 13 in his previous two Tests, struck 64 including two sixes into the Tavern stand off left-arm spinner Monty Panesar.

He hit seven fours and lofted left-arm spinner Monty Panesar into the Tavern stand for two sixes during a partnership of 105 with Chaminda Vaas (50 not out), a Sri Lankan ninth wicket record against all countries.

Tillakaratne Dilshan scored 69, also eating up three hours of precious time, and 19-year-old debutant Chamara Kapugedera scored only 10 but occupied the crease for just under an hour.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene, who scored 61 in the first innings followed by a marathon 119 in the second to keep his team in the game, was named man-of-the-match.

"It was a disappointing first innings performance, and we knew we had to show some character, which we did. We're pretty happy with the effort," said Jayawardene.

England was again let down by fielding, grassing two simple catches and one harder chance, to add to six previous misses.

"If we held our catches we'd have won the game," said England captain Andrew Flintoff. "But they (Sri Lanka) kept going and batting and batting and kept us in the field for three-and-a-half days."

Flintoff also appeared to rotate his bowlers by numbers and continued to employ conventional field settings when the situation cried out for pressure to be placed on the tailenders.

Flintoff, normally one of the safest slip catchers in the world, dropped the easiest of chances by his standards before Kapugedera had added to his overnight total of five after play started 20 minutes late because of light rain.

Alastair Cook then fumbled his second catch of the innings, a crucial one as it proved, when he reprieved Kulasekara on 14. In the final session Paul Collingwood also recorded his second miss of the match when he failed to hold a high chance off Vaas when the batsman had scored 41.

Kapugedera was the first to go, caught by wicketkeeper Geraint Jones gloving an attempted hook off Flintoff. It was Jones's fifth dismissal of the innings.

Dilshan added 30 to his overnight total before giving Liam Plunkett his first wicket of the match with an edge to Marcus Tresothick at slip. He had hit 11 fours for his eighth Test half century.

England took lunch 20 minutes early after another shower and at that stage victory seemed in sight.

Although the pace bowlers regularly beat the outside edge, they could not dislodge either of the ninth wicket pair who batted with increasing assurance in the afternoon session to take their team to 8-510 at tea with 47 overs remaining.

Flintoff, who had bowled with great heart from the Pavilion End, beat Vaas three times from as many balls outside the off-stump in his 50th over then took his sweater.

Collingwood bowled in his place but after Matthew Hoggard dismissed Kulasekara, Flintoff immediately resumed the attack, hitting Muttiah Muralitharan on the left hand. The umpires then took the sides off for bad light.

Vaas continued to play serenely when play resumed, reaching his 10th Test half-century with seven fours before the players left the field for the final time.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP