England captain Ollie Pope admitted his side “shot ourselves in the foot” as wayward batting at the Kia Oval saw a triumphant Test summer end in defeat.
Having rejuvenated the side with new blood at the start of the season, England completed a 3-0 clean sweep over the West Indies and were on course for an identical result against Sri Lanka after brushing them aside at Old Trafford and Lord’s.
But despite a fine century from Pope, his first as stand-in skipper for the injured Ben Stokes, the hosts surrendered the initiative at the Oval with a handful of costly errors.
They lost a cluster of wickets to go from 261 for three to 325 all out in the first innings and saw things get even worse in their second as they collapsed for 156 in 34 chaotic overs.
Sri Lanka’s Pathum Nissanka then made them pay as his unbeaten 127 carried the tourists to an eight-wicket victory, ruining England’s chance of winning every Test in a home season since 2004.
Pope insisted there was no question of his players taking their eye off the prize but admitted they made life unnecessarily hard on themselves.
“It’s been disappointing, on the third day we shot ourselves in the foot,” he said.
“We were ahead of the game after two days and we weren’t able to capitalise. With the bat we weren’t good enough and, in the second innings, we weren’t up to it.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of edge or not really having that desire to go and put together a massive score, but it can just happen in cricket and there’s been a good gap since we last did that.”
The home side’s bowlers were handed an unenviable task on the final morning, needing to hunt nine wickets with Sri Lanka requiring only 125 to claim their fourth ever win in England.
In the end, they managed just one. For the first time since James Anderson’s enforced retirement they looked conspicuously light on options as the game wound to a close, Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson weary after six Tests in quick succession and 20-year-old’s Josh Hull and Shoaib Bashir unable to make an impact.
Atkinson, who had been carrying a quad injury, was subsequently pulled from the forthcoming one-day squad to face Australia, with Olly Stone stepping in.
Atkinson has made a remarkable start to his Test career, taking 34 wickets at 20.17 since debuting in Anderson’s farewell appearance, and is primed for a major role against Pakistan next month.
“Obviously there’s a few of our guys carrying a few small injuries but credit to them on the way they fronted up and cracked on,” said Pope.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about the outcome this morning, it was more about us not being able to drive the game home after two days.”
Joe Root, who passed Sir Alastair Cook’s national record of 33 Test centuries with twin hundreds in the second Test at Lord’s, encouraged an optimistic view of England’s recent efforts.
“I don’t think we played our best cricket this week and that is going to happen from time to time. Coldplay can’t be number one every week,” he told BBC’s Test Match Special.
“Not so much this week but it has been a good summer. We have played some really cricket along the way, had new faces come into the team and found some really exciting prospects off the back of that.
“We are constantly learning and evolving as a group and it is nice to contribute to that. We’re not always going to get it right all of the time but for 90 per cent of the summer we have.”