Captain Ollie Pope has denied England’s eight-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka within the third and remaining Take a look at was resulting from complacency.
Sri Lanka accomplished their first Take a look at victory on English soil in over a decade after the hosts suffered a second-innings collapse on day three which opened the door to their opponents.
There have been plenty of questionable choices made by Pope all through the collection together with his 10 failed DRS evaluations. Extra notably, although, on day two when dangerous gentle pressured England’s spinners on, they struggled on a pitch that supplied little motion and Pope determined to maintain the crew on with the vacationers managing to get better from 93-5 to 211-5.
In true Bazball trend, England would have needed to hold on with the sport to entertain the followers and proceed their assault however after their loss, questions have been raised about whether or not that was a turning level within the match.
Wednesday eleventh September 6:00pm
“I don’t think it was complacency at all. It’s been a long summer, but that’s nothing to do with the fact we lost this game,” Pope mentioned.
“We nonetheless got here to play with the identical intentions, however this sport, for some cause, it did not fairly come off.
“We did not get sufficient runs after having a first-innings lead and I would most likely put it right down to that.
“It was just one of those days where it didn’t come off. We played some really good cricket throughout the series and then in a couple of weeks’ time we’ll be able to look back on that day three, reflect on it and make a decision then.”
England jeopardised their clear sweep possibilities on day three throughout their second innings once they collapsed to 82-7 with Ben Duckett and Pope out for seven, Chris Woakes dismissed for a duck, Harry Brook (3) and Gus Atkinson (1) trapped lbw and Shoaib Bashir eliminated for 4.
This handed Sri Lanka a golden alternative to get again into the Take a look at match and so they accepted it with open arms.
In doing so, the hosts floundered their probability of incomes their first clean-sweep summer season in 20 years after beating the West Indies 3-0 within the collection previous this.
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England captain Ollie Pope shares his ideas following England’s third Take a look at defeat by Sri Lanka
“It’s disappointing not to be on the right side of the result. Day three, we probably shot ourselves in the foot a little bit,” Pope added.
“We weren’t at our best and credit to Sri Lanka. The way [Pathum] Nissanka played was high-class and they deserved to win this Test.
“However we weren’t at our greatest as effectively.”
The way of the defeat was harking back to a pre-Bazball period – gradual, inevitable and uninspiring – and in addition took away from the truth that England received the collection 2-1.
And whereas there have been promising moments all through the Take a look at summer season with wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith and tempo bowler Atkinson starring, defeat within the remaining match will probably be disappointing for this ultra-positive England facet.
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Pathum Nissanka brings up his century as Sri Lanka edge nearer to a complete win in opposition to England within the third Take a look at
“They will be frustrated to have lost here. It is generally a ground they play well at,” mentioned former England quick bowler Stuart Broad.
“I think I said at the start of the summer, their target will have been to win the six Test matches while also getting some new players into Test match cricket and see how they settle.
“I believe that has actually been achieved. There was some good performances from gamers which have come into Take a look at match cricket and settled actually properly.
“But this performance will frustrate them slightly, especially now there is a bit of a break before they play another Test match.
“Nearly once you play like this and do not get it fairly proper, you wish to play the next week and stamp a few of these habits out.
“England probably didn’t care for their wickets enough or to get a big enough lead.”
Root: We hold discovering new methods to have a look at Take a look at cricket
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Joe Root reacts to England’s third Take a look at defeat by Sri Lanka and being named England’s Take a look at participant of the summer season
Joe Root, the participant of the collection, mentioned the defeat will give England one other probability to construct as they discover new methods to method Take a look at cricket.
“It is great to see this team keep finding new ways to look at the game, keep evolving, keep getting better, and some new faces come in and put their best foot forward and show the depth we have got,” Root mentioned.
“I feel good. You know how fickle this game is, you have got to keep working hard, you know how quickly things can change.
“I believe we got here up in opposition to totally different situations on this sport and we’re at all times attempting to search for methods to place strain on the opposition.
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Sky Sports activities’ Mark Butcher and Kumar Sangakkara taker a more in-depth take a look at the performances of each Sri Lanka and England after the conclusion of day three of the third Take a look at on the Oval
“Unfortunately in this game, it didn’t work in the way we wanted it to but we still stuck to the way we want to play our cricket.
“There will probably be occasions the place we’re challenged and have to seek out our means again into the sport, however I believe what brings our greatest performances is being a crew that stands out from others.
“It is an opportunity for us to learn from it and evolve and get better like we want to.”
England’s subsequent Take a look at collection is available in October once they journey to Pakistan and will probably be hopeful that injured duo Zak Crawley and Ben Stokes will probably be match to play as Pope fingers again the reins.
They beforehand accomplished a 3-0 whitewash on their final tour to the nation in 2022 and after Pakistan’s latest first ever Take a look at collection defeat to Bangladesh, complacency will definitely come again into query.
What’s subsequent?
England’s multi-format white-ball collection in opposition to Australia begins on Wednesday September 11, stay on Sky Sports activities Cricket from 6pm forward of the primary ball at 6.30pm.
Sky Sports activities+ has formally launched and will probably be built-in into Sky TV, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports activities app, giving Sky Sports activities prospects entry to over 50 per cent extra stay sport this yr at no further price. Discover out extra right here.
