Sri Lanka v England: Andrew Strauss cements his place as captain with stoic half-century in Colombo But those who criticised Strauss, and even demanded his head on a platter, should appreciate that he was doing the wrong thing for the right reason - or at least for a selfless one. With Cook for an opening partner, and the equally adhesive and obdurate (ok, slow) Jonathan Trott at number three, Strauss felt he had to force the pace. As skipper of a slow boat to Asia, he had to get steam up quickly at the start of the journey, otherwise his crew would never arrive. If he had been selfish, the problem would to a large extent have gone away. In the third Test in Dubai, for instance, he could have carried his bat for sixty-odd not out. He would have emerged from that disaster of a series as England's only specialist batsman with a decent average, and warded off media criticism for the rest of the winter. But that is not the Strauss way. He did what he thought was best for his side, and suffered the consequences, in silence. In this Test he was patient for most of another boiling day, yet still busy. His score and Cook's marched side by side, deceptively. Strauss was scoring at three runs an over, Cook - with much more of the strike - at two an over, as together they dented Sri Lanka's first total and made it insufficient. England's first 50 or century opening stand of the winter, their second century stand in all, the 14th century opening stand between Strauss and Cook: plenty of landmarks were ticked off. All that remained was for Strauss to go on to his personal hundred, which would have kept the wolves at bay for the whole of this summer. He has made his 20s and 30s - he hasn't been dismissed for single figures since the home series against Sri Lanka - but, like an ineffective missionary, he has not been able to convert. Instead, he started to force the pace against the spinners, highly dangerous on such a slow pitch, and after a couple of edges that had not carried to slip, finally nicked to the keeper. But he had set up a victory for England, at the fifth attempt this winter, and shown that the harsh lessons have been slowly learnt.