England lose unbeaten streak at hands of brilliant Sri Lanka

England’s Ollie Pope admitted his side “shot themselves in the foot” as Sri Lanka won the final home Test of the year to ruin a previously unbeaten summer.

England, without Test captain Ben Stokes, went into the third Test at the Oval 2-0 up in the series having won all five of their matches this summer – against Sri Lanka and the West Indies – but they were well beaten by the tourists in south London.

“It’s been disappointing, on the third day we shot ourselves in the foot,” Pope, who scored a century in the first innings, 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.”

England not like Coldplay

England now have a short break from Test cricket – though the white-ball side will be in action against Australia this week – before they play three matches away from home against Pakistan in October and three against New Zealand in December.

“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,” Joe Root, who scored two centuries in the Lord’s Test, told BBC’s Test Match Special.

“Not so much this week but it has been a good summer. We have played some really good 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.”