Ollie Pope’s aggressive actions leave England with regrets after ‘shooting themselves in the foot’

Ollie Pope admitted England “shot themselves in the foot” as Sri Lanka secured a crushing eight-wicket victory while the hosts were left reeling from costly errors.

The Test may have had an end-of-term or end-of-summer feel to it, but that won’t appease the thousands of fans who have spent their time and money watching this team at the Oval.

To avoid defeat England would have had to show great skill and resilience, something that has rarely been the case this summer despite winning five of their five matches. Sri Lanka started the day on 94-1 and were only 125 runs from victory with nine wickets remaining and the result seemed almost a foregone conclusion on the final day, after the events of the third day.

Pathun Nissanka scored his second Test century as Sri Lanka scored the required runs with relative ease while England’s bowlers struggled for pace and consistency in a match that could have looked like one too many.

Gus Atkinson was struggling with a thigh injury suffered on day three, and Josh Hull also had a strap on his thigh, but there was only one wicket to fall. Kunas Mendis was caught by a superb diving catch from Shoaib Bashir on the boundary rope for 39, giving Atkinson another wicket.

Bashir had another chance to catch Nissanka, but he was already at 108, and it was unlikely to have a significant effect on the outcome.

When Pope opted for a short-ball strategy with Sri Lanka still holding eight wickets in hand and needing less than 50 for victory, it looked like a last-ditch effort to try and prevent the inevitable.

Ultimately, on the morning of the fourth day, history was all but made after Sri Lanka capitalised on Pope’s hyper-aggressive fielding on the evening of the third day and England’s reckless batting.

“It’s disappointing not to be on the right side of the result today,” Pope told Sky Sports after the match.

“On the third day, we shot ourselves in the foot, we weren’t at our best.

“I wouldn’t say it was complacency. It’s been a long summer, but that’s not the reason. It was just one of those days [day three] “We want to continue to learn, improve and move forward and I think we achieved that this summer.”

He added: “I loved being captain. Obviously when Stokesy comes back he’ll take over, but it was an honour.”

“It’s disappointing not to win today, but we’ve won five out of six Tests this summer.”

England needed wickets while the tourists needed just 219 runs but Sri Lanka’s batters held firm, picking up boundaries with ease as the hosts had four in the slip cordon and one gully, with only one fielder on the rope.

England may have to look more closely at Pope’s aggressive decision to continue with 17 overs of spin after tea on the second day to continue play due to fears of bad light, although the stand-in captain defended his decision after the match and felt it could have paid off. It allowed Sri Lanka to score runs and take their first-innings total to 263, after England had scored 325.

The attacking tendencies were not confined to their defensive play; perhaps in a desire to entertain after a sparse crowd at Lord’s and with the series victory already confirmed, they were bowled out for just 156 in 33.5 overs, with Jamie Smith’s 67 the only notable innings.

Their second innings was publicly criticised by former captains Alastair Cook and Michael Vaughan, as the batsmen charged down the wicket but were sent back to the dressing rooms at a faster rate than the sixes they were trying to hit.

England were sloppy in their wicketkeeping and showed great difficulty in their bowling, lacking the bite of the team’s major successes during the ‘Bazball’ era. Instead, it resulted in a lacklustre and joyless end to the Test summer.