England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope has claimed that there was no complacency from his side as they lost the third Test at the Oval to Sri Lanka on September 9, Monday. Pathum Nissanka was the architect of Sri Lanka’s historic win as he scored 127 and remained unbeaten as the visitors won the match by 8 wickets. England did have a lead of 62, but failed to make the most of it as they were bundled out for 156 runs in the second innings.
Pope said that England’s long summer wasn’t a reason why they lost the game. The stand-in skipper said that his side came out with the same intentions, but it didn’t come off and felt they were a bit short of runs despite taking a lead in the first innings.
“I don’t think it was complacency at all. It’s been a long summer, but that’s nothing to do with the fact we lost this game.”
“We still came to play with the same intentions, but this game, for some reason, it didn’t quite come off. We didn’t get enough runs after having a first-innings lead and I’d probably put it down to that.”
“It was just one of those days where it didn’t come off. We played some really good cricket throughout the series and then in a couple of weeks’ time we’ll be able to look back on that day three, reflect on it and make a decision then,” said Pope.
Pope said that he feels England shot themselves in the foot a little bit during Day 3 and weren’t at their best. The England skipper praised the way Sri Lanka and Nissanka played and said they deserved to win the match in the end.
“It’s disappointing not to be on the right side of the result. Day three, we probably shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. We weren’t at our best and credit to Sri Lanka. The way Nissanka played was high-class and they deserved to win this Test. But we weren’t at our best as well,” said Pope.
The match at the Oval was England’s last Test at home this summer.
