By Jonathan Agnew BBC cricket correspondent at Lord's

Cook was one of the guilty men as nine chances went down

This will rank alongside the greatest escapes in Test cricket, and Sri Lanka showed greater resolve than most pundits thought they were capable of producing.

Their technique, which looked so fallible in the first innings, will remain an issue in this series, but enough batsmen got stuck in and showed enormous determination to earn the draw.

But England were dreadfully below par. Nine chances - of varying degrees of difficulty - were put down.

The worst examples were the catch that Andrew Strauss grassed when Mahela Jayewardene was on 58, and when Alastair Cook dropped a sitter in the gully to reprieve Nuwan Kulasekara on 14.

He went on to score 64 and, with Chaminda Vaas, batted for 52 overs.

Unbelievably, Paul Collingwood then dropped Vaas, another of Sri Lanka's heroes, which would have left England to score 169 to win from 24 overs.

We should not forget, either, that England bowled throughout under cloudy skies.

The ball swung and seamed consistently. This was a good pitch, but the bowlers were helped all the way through - even Collingwood made a ball fizz past Kulasekara's nose from short of a length after tea on the final day.

Sri Lanka will go into the second Test with their confidence greatly enhanced

For once, Andrew Flintoff's leadership lacked sparkle and imagination.

When the ball is swinging about, a short-leg fielder is essential to prevent the batsman from thrusting his front foot down the pitch and negating the movement.

It was only after tea, and far too late, that Flintoff went round the wicket with two short legs at the number 10 in an attempt to intimidate him.

Monty Panesar hardly bowled on the final day. This was an indication of how much help the seamers were getting, but if you select a spinner to give you variety, then surely you must use him.

To escape with a draw can have the same galvanising effect as a victory, and Sri Lanka will go into the second Test with their confidence greatly enhanced.

England, on the other hand, will need several days simply to recover from the effects of spending three days in the field.