The skill of finding that Headingley length

The fourth umpire at Headingley for the first Test of the English summer is Peter Hartley. Or "Jack" as the boys call him; or "Daisy" as David Bairstow used to call him because "some days-he does it and some days-he doesn't." Jack is a game lad and used to bound in at this ground, day-in day-out, for Yorkshire. He took good wickets and went for bad runs. He was an old-school pro in the days of a beer and a fag. Some days he loved his job, some days he hated it. Jack knew one thing better than most: the Headingley length. He pitched the ball up at a strong pace and encouraged the drive. Some days he watched that pitched-up ball shoot back past him and some days he watched it fly to slip where fellows such as David Byas and Martyn Moxon pouched the catch.

In Geoffrey Boycott's day, the slip fielders were Phil Sharpe and Brian Close amongst others. Sharpe was without peer, Close was damn good. The bowler who found the edges back then was Fred Trueman, England's best. Boycott says Trueman had the ability to skim the ball across the top of the surface, like Darren Gough and Paul Jarvis some years later. Jarvis, with Hartley, it should be said, once dismantled a pretty decent Hampshire batting line-up for just 50-odd in a Benson and Hedges Cup match.

Boycott says that Trueman was one of only two bowlers he has seen who were good enough to bowl to seven fielders on the off-side and just two on the on-side. The other was Ian Botham. Both were brilliant with outswing, having the knack of getting it to go nice and late. Trueman had long-leg, mid-on and cover; everyone else was at slip or gully. If he got shirty about thick edges going for four to third man, he would drop one back to save the boundary. Botham almost never dropped one back, not his style. Trueman bowled very fast, Botham not far off. This made it harder for batsmen to get forward. At their best, these were two brilliant bowlers who made even the finest batsmen look like muggins. Then Boycott mentioned Malcolm Marshall, who knocked over England here with a plaster cast on his broken left-arm. Marshall was a fast skidder of the ball too.

When Angelo Mathews won the toss and chose to bowl, he knew his bowlers had to get the Headingley length right. Too full and it disappears down the ground, too short and it sits up for cutting. A good length at Old Trafford or The Oval is too short at Headingley. A good length at Headingley is almost a half-volley.

Dasun Shanaka is playing his first Test match. He doesn't know any different. His whole Test career has been played at pitch-it-up-Headingley and the figures read 9-3-30-3. As a rule, bowlers from the sub-continent kiss the pitch rather than bang it in. This is because banging it in gets you next to nowhere on the dry and dusty things back home.

Up until the point of Shanaka's introduction to the attack, Sri Lanka had looked rather ordinary: a tidy county attack at best. Alastair Cook and Alex Hales were making steady, if not startling, progress. Occasionally they were beaten by gentle swing but otherwise they were comfortable. So comfortable in fact, that the little gremlin began to invade their minds. "310 for 4 today lads, no problem. Which of you is going to make the hundred, or is it both? You've laid the foundations soundly enough, play a few shots now, get the game going forward," said the gremlin. Cook heard him loud and clear and, most uncharacteristically, obeyed.

Cook, caught Chandimal, bowled Shanaka 16. Introspectively, the disciplined England captain faced 51 balls. Extravagantly, the human being christened Alastair Cook finally drove at the 52nd, which was angled across his body and wider than was good for him. Curtains.

In came the even more introspective Nick Compton. Three balls later out he went, caught Thirimanne, bowled Shanaka 0. This was a lovely delivery that held its line around off stump. Not a Trueman ball you understand but not half bad. Poor Nick, so eager.

Trueman once arrived at Headingley to see a blonde-haired bowler operating for England from the Kirkstall Lane end.

"Who's blonde lad coomin' down the hill Aggers lad," the great man asked Jonathan Agnew in the Test Match Special commentary box.

"That's Neil Mallender of Northamptonshire, Fred, he's taking a lot of wickets for Northamptonshire this season and has been specifically chosen to bowl on this pitch."

"A lot of great fast bowlers have coom down that hill Aggers lad, and he's not effing one of them."

Doubtless, Trueman would have said much the same of Shanaka. At least until, the boy on debut scalped Joe Root. The last time Root batted here, he made a double hundred - 213 against Surrey a week or so back. This time he didn't get off the mark. There were a couple of bouncers from which he swayed, a back foot block or two and then the full ball to which he came hard and therefore nicked into the efficient cordon behind him.

Root, caught Mendis, bowled Shanaka 0. Ouch.

Boycott says it is simple. To bat well here, you have to block the good balls and hit the bad ones. By this he means play guardedly forward and do not look to drive as a matter of course. Add a little to the length of each delivery in your shot selection, in effect a margin for error. If you must drive, only do so when the ball is very full, he says. Exaggerate this decision making if there is cloud cover - as there was all day - and only when the sky is blue and the sun is shining can you loosen off.

Michael Vaughan made an interesting point. He said that no ground that he could think of switched more acutely in favour of either batsmen or bowler upon the passing of a cloud. He said there are days when batting at Headingley is a pleasure, and then there is pain. Actually, this pitch is very dry and may well either turn, or become uneven in its bounce. Or both. Therefore, England must make a score - close to 300 if possible.

Hales has given them the chance to do so. It was a tremendous show of discipline and restraint from a man best known for other, more adventurous, talents. Within Hales lies ambition. Such is his desire to bat at the top of the order for England that he has seen the value of denial. Boycott loved his innings - you know, patting back those half-volleys and leaving well alone outside off stump. Against the faster bowlers, he scored mainly from the back foot either side of point and gully. The tennis ball bounce allowed him to wait and pick a spot, which he did with accuracy and timing. He has the chance to 'go big', especially if Jonny Bairstow hangs with him. Bairstow is in terrific touch and now feels as if he belongs. Cape Town sorted that.

Already, this match has an unpredictable flavour. Now Leeds must offer us some brighter weather, to go with its entertaining pitch.