With a 2-0 lead in the series, and a 3-0 victory over the West Indies in July, England are on course for their first clean sweep of the summer since Michael Vaughan’s side won seven out of seven in 2004. while Ben Duckett and Pope himself, with his seventh Test century, were 221 for 3 at the end of the first day’s play.

But after that England’s batting came into its own, with the second innings all out for 156 in 34 overs for the loss of 7 wickets in the first innings, with only Jamie Smith’s counter half-century offering any meaningful resistance. This meant that a comfortable first innings lead of 62 was swallowed up in a victory target of 219, and Pathum Nissanka wasted no time in beating England at their own game, with an innings of 127 not out. Sealed the pursuit in style. 124 balls

“Of course, we want to be a team that wins every game, like everybody does, and we’ve been doing that for 20 years,” Pope concluded. “It was an extra boost this week, so it’s a bit of a disappointment that we didn’t do it. Out of six Tests, you might as well have taken it.”

England lost each of their first 13 wickets of the match with attacking strokes, including Pope’s 7 in his second innings, and then Vishwa Fernando’s brilliant display of left-arm swing bowling. got off, who had successive lbws against Root and Harry. Brooke tore the guts out of England’s middle order.

Brooke’s performance came under scrutiny, particularly in light of Michael Vaughan’s warning on the BBC that he would earn his living if he continued to disrespect the rhythm of Test match batting, as His first innings featured a 19-run scrimmage. Vishwa’s number was second, but the Pope insisted that “lack of appetite” did not cause his downfall.

“With guys like Harry Brook and Joe Root, they’ll never get bored of batting,” Pope said. “I know, from the outside, it might look like that, but they’re guys who want to put up hundreds every game. So I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of an edge, or really it is. Not aspirational. Go and put together a big score, but that can only happen in cricket, and it’s a good difference from the last time we did it.”

Perhaps the gesture was intended as an apology to Hull, whose six wicketless overs were taken in pursuit of more than a run a ball, as Pope was in no doubt where the blame lay for England’s defeat.

“Maybe the third day,” he said. “Obviously, we were ahead of the game after two days and couldn’t capitalize on a decent first innings lead. We weren’t that good with the bat yesterday, but credit goes to Sri Lanka. They bowled well. , they won. There were some good adjustments in the second innings, and we disagreed on what could have happened.

“We’ve been pretty strong overall as a batting unit this summer, and unfortunately we weren’t at our best yesterday. It should have been a game we carried forward, and we had a commanding seat there. But obviously, being bowled out for 140 on a pitch that usually gets better and better as the game goes on was probably the main reason we weren’t on the right side of the result.”

The fatal blow to England’s hopes, however, was Vishwa’s dismissal of Root for 12 runs. Sri Lanka have spoken at length about their tactics since the end of the Lord’s Test – in which Root’s two centuries put the series out of reach – and as their interim coach Santh Jayasuriya later That said, their plans were perfect.

“Some of the things we talked about was hitting a really good short ball against them, and a great yorker as well,” Jayasuriya said. “I think we both played very well in both innings. The ball started swinging for Vishwa yesterday, and he tried to do that. Joe Root is the batsman who changes the match in this team. Other batsmen Scores big wickets around him.”