England overcame the early loss of Andrew Strauss to reach 149-2 at the close on Monday, taking a 156-run lead into the final day of the second test against Sri Lanka.
Strauss fell lbw to Chanaka Welegedara for a second-ball duck, but Jonathan Trott struck 58 and Alastair Cook hit 61 not out to make a Sri Lankan victory at Lord's extremely unlikely.
The match looks to be headed for a draw but Sri Lanka may face a repeat of day five of the first test, when England's declaration left it to bat out 50 overs. The tourists slumped to 82 all out and lost by an innings and 14 runs.
"We're in a great position to push on, but I don't think we'll be looking beyond the first hour," England bowler Steven Finn said. "We'll take things drinks break by drinks break, and hour by hour and see where we stand.
"We can't expect to bowl teams out for 80. We can't do that all the time."
After rain washed out the whole of Monday's morning session, Finn finished with 4-108 to help England take Sri Lanka's last seven wickets for 107 runs and bowl them out for 479.
England's first-innings lead of just 7 looked particularly slender when Strauss was rapped on the pad of his trailing leg by an outswinger by Welegedara.
But Cook and Trott were composed against Sri Lanka's medium-pacers and guided England to 18-1 at tea. They left almost everything outside the off stump and put on 50 from 75 balls before Farveez Maharoof beat the edge of Cook's bat.
Trott fell when he stepped too quickly to an innocuous delivery from Rangana Herath and was bowled by the spinner, bringing Kevin Pietersen to the crease at 117-2.
Mindful of his well-publicised struggles against left-arm spin, the Lord's crowd cheered ironically as Pietersen met the last two balls of Herath's over with tame forward defensive blocks. Pietersen started slowly but looked more like his old self when he smacked Herath back over his head for a boundary from the 26th ball he faced.
Pietersen was 15 not out from 44 balls when play ended at 7:30pm local time - 90 minutes after the normal scheduled close.
Just as they had on Sunday, the umpires took the players off for bad light in the final session to jeers and slow claps from the crowd. After a 17-minute delay, Trott showed he had no problems with the conditions by dispatching the first delivery from Fernando for four.
While Strauss averages just 8 from three innings in this series, Trott and Cook continued their stellar form of the past year.
The scorer of a first-innings 96, Cook hit six boundaries from 134 balls to go to 1223 runs for the past 12 months, fewer only than Sachin Tendulkar's 1245. Trott scored even more quickly with nine boundaries from 75 balls and is now third on that list with 1112.
If England can occupy the crease until after lunch on Tuesday and there is no more rain, the home side will hope for a 2-0 series lead ahead of the June 16-20 third test at The Rose Bowl.
Sri Lanka's batsmen had resumed the day on a healthy 372-3 but were bowled out following an improved performance by Chris Tremlett, Finn and Stuart Broad.
Finn and Tremlett found a more accurate off-stump line and quickly got rid of overnight batsmen Mahela Jayawardene (49) and Thilan Samaraweera (9). Broad then had Maharoof trapped lbw for 2 as three key wickets fell in 38 balls for the addition of 15 runs.
"We put the ball in the right areas today and we let the ball do the talking," Finn said. "We put the pressure on the Sri Lankans, which is what the guys did in the Cardiff test."
Prasanna Jayawardene and Herath added 57 for the seventh wicket as the bowlers' discipline wavered, but Finn's haul still made him the youngest England player to take 50 test wickets - reaching the mark in 12 tests at the age of 22 years, 63 days.
"I learn every time I go and bowl," Finn said. "The more I can keep improving, hopefully more results can come."
Herath dispatched anything pitched up to him by the increasingly frustrated pace bowlers and took on fellow spinner Graeme Swann, who eventually had his opponent stumped for 26 with his first real turning delivery of the day.
Herath and Prasanna Jayawardene's 73-ball stand held up the home side, but it was all over once Swann got rid of Herath and Finn had Jayawardene caught low by Swann at slip for 40.
Finn struck Suranga Lakmal full on the helmet two balls later to shake the No 10 batsman and Dilhara Fernando went soon after for 5, falling to Strauss' left-handed catch at slip off the bowling of Swann. Swann then tempted last man Welegedara into giving Broad an easy catch for 6 as Sri Lanka's last four wickets fell for 13.
But wicketkeeper Matthew Prior, who scored 126 across Friday and Saturday, has now fielded a frustrating total of 48 byes and leg byes across two rain-interrupted days.
England will need greater discipline to force a positive result.
