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England stand-in skipper Ollie Pope lamented the batting display on Day 3, which brought Sri Lanka back into the game at The Oval. The hosts were bundled out for a paltry 156 in the second innings after claiming a lead of 63 runs halfway through the contest.
England's 34-over effort, which saw only Dan Lawrence and Jamie Smith put on noteworthy scores, was panned by fans and pundits alike. The batting unit crumbled from 56/2 to 84/7 in no time as the Sri Lanka pace quartet, particularly Lahiru Kumara inflicted some serious damage.
Sri Lanka approached the fourth innings target with positivity, scoring at run-a-ball until Stumps on Day 3, and kept their composure to scale the total with eight wickets remaining.
Ollie Pope remarked that the Day 3 display became England's undoing, but refused to factor in complacency as a factor behind it.
“Disappointing not to be on the right side of the result today. Day three we shot ourselves in the foot, we were not at our best. Wouldn’t say it was complacency. It has been a long summer but that is not the reason. It was just one of those days (day three) where it didn’t come off. We want to keep learning, bettering ourselves and moving forward and I think we have done that this summer," Pope said during the post-match presentation.
Despite the defeat, England emerged as the series winners by a 2-1 margin, on the back of their wins at Old Trafford and Lord's.
"Obviously when Stokesy is back he will step back in but it has been an honor" - Ollie Pope
Ollie Pope's captaincy and his barren run with the bat were topics of intense debate over the course of the series. He managed to silence the naysayers for a brief while with his century in the first innings of the third Test, but he returned a poor score in the second innings, to keep the debate behind his sluggish starts going.
“Loved being captain. Obviously when Stokesy is back he will step back in but it has been an honour. Disappointing not to win today but we have won five out of six Tests this summer," Pope said.
England's red-ball home season comes to a close with the series against Sri Lanka. They are scheduled to host Australia for a white-ball series next, which will be followed by a tour of Pakistan.
