COLOMBO, Dec 17: Sri Lankan captain Hashan Tillekeratne and coach John Dyson on Wednesday criticised England for showing a negative attitude during their ongoing Test series here.

“England have been playing negative cricket during this series,” said Tillekeratne. “We’ve made some sporting declarations but they’ve never thought about winning.”

England staved off defeat by just one wicket in the opening Test at Galle and had three wickets in hand in their second innings at Kandy after being set a 368-run target.

The final Test commences at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) Ground here on Thursday.

“I don’t think we set improbable targets or played too safe in either of the matches. We never had the fear of losing,” said Tillekeratne, who hoped the series would not end with a 0-0 scoreline.

“The pitch here might help seam bowling a litle but looks like a good batting track and it would be disappointing if this match too ends in a draw,” said Tillekeratne.

Dyson, the Sri Lanka’s Australian coach, too blamed England for the draws, especially in the second match.

“England’s attitude was bad. Had they lost a couple of wickets and then decided to play for a draw in Kandy, it would have been understandable. But they went for a draw from the beginning,” said Dyson.

“The pitch in Kandy was good, the outfield fast and their most experienced batsmen were in the middle. They should have gone for the runs.”

Dyson had a sarcastic dig at the English team and alleged that they had resorted to time-wasting tactics during the second Test.

“We bowled good over rates, didn’t need much water and our gloves stayed dry. We probably don’t sweat as much as they do from the fear of losing,” said Dyson.

“Officials should penalise players who resort to wasting time.”

Dyson felt the Sri Lankan batsmen could revel in the bouncier conditions at the SSC ground.

“Sanath (Jayasuriya), Marvan (Atapattu), Kumar (Sangakkara) and Mahela (Jayawardene) all like the ball to come on to the bat and could plunder the attack if they get going,” said Dyson.

England captain Michael Vaughan was hoping to make full use of the seaming conditions.

“We need to beef up our pace attack and are thinking of dropping a batsman.”

James Kirtley was the only specialist seamer at Kandy while Richard Johnson and Matthew Hoggard played at Galle, apart from all-rounders Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood, who played both Tests.

“We have to take some hard decisions for our match tomorrow. We may have to drop either (Nasser) Hussain or Collingwood,” said Vaughan.

Former captain Hussain led England to a 2-1 victory in Sri Lanka two years ago while Collingwood came up with some useful knocks in the first two Tests.

Teams (from):

Sri Lanka: Hashan Tillekeratne (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Michael Vandort, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Dharmasena, Upul Chandana, Chaminda Vaas, Dinusha Fernando, Dilhara Fernando, Tillekeratne Dilshan.

England: Michael Vaughan (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff, Rikki Clarke, Gareth Batty, Paul Collingwood, Robert Croft, Ashley Giles, Matthew Hoggard, James Anderson, Richard Johnson, James Kirtley, Chris Read, Geraint Jones.

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Steve Bucknor (West Indies).

Match referee: Clive Lloyd (West Indies).—AFP