The last day at Lord's was largely overshadowed by Matt Prior's part in a freak accident, in which a dressing-room window was broken and a shard of glass left a female spectator in the members' seating area below with a minor cut on her ankle.
The initial assumption was that Prior, who had just made his way back after being run out in England's dash to set up a declaration on 335 for seven, had somehow broken the window with angry bat-throwing or the like.
That was swiftly denied by England - and after Prior had apologised to the spectator and Andrew Strauss had made it clear the "case is closed", the captain was able to reflect on events in the middle too.
A sixth hundred in 12 Test innings from Alastair Cook was obvious reason for cheer, and Kevin Pietersen's return to form with 72 in a century stand with the opener was also encouraging.
"It wasn't an easy situation when he went in, dark cloud cover and the lights on," Strauss said of the England number four, still without a home hundred since 2008.
"Lord's does a lot more in those conditions, so he did have to graft pretty hard then. He did that outstandingly well and then obviously came out the other side and played some lovely shots.
"We always knew he was going to score runs at some stage, and we hope this is the catalyst to go and have a purple patch like Alastair Cook's having."
Strauss himself had a tough Test, mustering just four runs in two attempts, and falling lbw twice to left-arm seamer Chanaka Welegedara.
"I was obviously frustrated to miss out twice on a good batting surface," he said.
"But I think to some extent that's the nature of the beast as an opening batsman...sometimes you get a couple of good ones early.
"I obviously need to keep working and make sure it doesn't happen again at the Rose Bowl."
England's bowlers came in for much criticism as Sri Lanka almost achieved first-innings parity, but were seen in a better light on Tuesday.
The tourists were still able to close on a comfortable 127 for three and therefore travel to Southampton only 1-0 down.
Strauss said of his attack: "There was a lack of consistency there, obviously.
"Over the last 18 months we've prided ourselves on just how consistent we have been as a bowling line-up.
"But the guys are not machines, and sometimes the rhythm's not there - and it's hard work.
"I was very happy with the way the guys came back and improved as the game went on. We're not going to play the perfect Test match every time - we've got to be realistic about that - but the most important thing is we don't make the same mistake twice."
England are expecting James Anderson to return after a minor side injury to lead the attack at the Rose Bowl, meaning any one of the three pace bowlers in action at Lord's could conceivably have to give way.
Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan is highly unlikely to have recovered in time from the thumb broken by Chris Tremlett, and Kumar Sangakkara is expected to lead the tourists on the south coast.
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