We Came Up Short Too Often, Admits Vaughan As Jayawardene Jibes

A few hours after it was all over, with lakes in the outfield for once defeating the ground staff, the lifts and air conditioning broken and water pouring from various ceilings of the hastily erected stands, the stadium at Galle, with a lifespan little better than a mayfly, appeared to be drifting back to its pre-match shambles. And still Sri Lanka were beating England. While the England captain, Michael Vaughan, and the coach, Peter Moores, made magnanimous noises about the opposition, Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, who has been bitching throughout the series, refused to let up.

Moores conceded: "After the first Test in Kandy we've been pretty much on the back foot. They played better than we did. And we didn't get it right in Galle. We were off the pace."

Vaughan shrugged: "Sri Lanka is, after Australia, the hardest place to come and play. To be brutally honest, the weather here saved us from a 2-0 defeat, which is disappointing. We didn't have enough skill and expertise to win games."

The raptorial Jayawardene, not satisfied with dominating this series with 474 runs from three completed innings, continued to score freely. After England had dropped from second to fifth and Sri Lanka had jumped from fifth to third in the world Test rankings, the little maestro from Colombo was determined to put the boot in.

"It should have been at least 2-0," he griped. "England were competitive in the first game. After that they were competitive in certain days and sessions but not over the full five days. That's why we outplayed them."

He added: "We wanted to win the series more than they did. We batted better in tough situations than them and created more pressure, and that was the difference. The way they batted in Colombo on the first day [of the second Test], it was pretty clear that they were not pushing for a win. They were trying to survive. We saw a lot of negativity.

"If you want to be competitive away from home, you need to be a bit more positive. You can't think these are not our conditions and we can't compete. You need to be more positive, more aggressive, to believe that you have the talent to compete."

Moores countered that England had wanted to win the series, which was not really Jayawardene's point. "Kandy was our opportunity. We got wickets early on. But we've got to score runs in excess of 400," he said, without explaining why England had continued to pick Ravi Bopara ahead of Owais Shah.

"It's been quite cruel for Ravi," he added. "He's a talented and exciting player. He's had a taste and now we must see how he and the other young players respond."

Vaughan's honesty rendered Jayawardene's comments superfluous. "We couldn't get it right in all our disciplines, batting, bowling and fielding," he said. "We didn't play as well as we can. We didn't manage to put the Sri Lankans under pressure for long enough. We've struggled to get 20 wickets and we struggled to bat, individually, for long enough periods to get really big scores. We showed fight and character but sometimes that isn't enough to win you Test series."

Then the England players hurried away, before the buildings tumbled down upon them. They have not played well out here but they didn't quite deserve that.