England captain Ollie Pope admitted to there being ‘extra motivation’ ahead of the season-ending Oval Test against Sri Lanka, which ultimately ended with ‘frustration’ as Sri Lanka registered their first win in the country in a decade. Following their 3-0 win over the West Indies, England came to the Test with a chance to sweep the home series – a feat they last achieved in 2004. Dhananjaya de Silva’s side ultimately put paid to those aspirations to complete an eight-wicket win.
England were in the box seat in the Test match at 261 for 3 in the first innings but a collapse of 7 for 64 allowed the visitors to force their way back into the contest. Even so, they managed a 62-run lead, which they couldn’t fortify after they were bowled out for 156 in the second innings.
“Of course, we want to be a team that wins every game, as everyone does, and it’s been 20 years since we’ve done it,” Pope said. “That was an extra bit of motivation this week, so there’s that slight bit of frustration that we’ve not done that. But at the same time, at the start of the summer, had someone said we’re going to win five out of six Test matches, you probably would have taken it as well.”
Pope said complacency was not a factor in the unanticipated end to the season. “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, 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.
Asked to pinpoint where they lost the game, Pope said they’d shot themselves in the foot with their third day performance, which left Sri Lanka chasing a fairly obtainable total. “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 [Pathum] Nissanka played was high-class and they deserved to win this Test. But we weren’t at our best as well,” said Pope.