Sri Lanka embarrass England in second ODI

Sri Lanka 186 for 2 (Jayawardene 77*, Sangakkara 67*) beat England 185 (Bopara 51, Root 42, A Mendis 3-33) by eight wickets

England suffered a humiliating defeat in their second One-Day International in Sri Lanka, losing by eight wickets after being bowled out for just 185.

Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara shared an unbeaten 149-run stand for Sri Lanka’s third wicket to give the hosts a two-nil lead in the series.

Another questionable display from England’s top-order resulted in the visitors falling to 37/3 after choosing to bat first.

England's recovery started with Joe Root, who made 42 before he was out lbw to Angelo Matthews at 117/5.

The visitors most significant contribution came from Ravi Bopara and his second fifty of the series, a more cultured approach than his previous innings, guided England towards a more substantial total.

But as batsmen came and went, Bopara's cause became compromised and he soon fell to Ajantha Mendis shortly after reaching his half-century, which came off 66 balls with a solitary boundary.

When the hosts began their chase of 186, England's efforts were proven to be worse than first imagined despite claiming two early wickets.

A breakthrough for Steven Finn removed Kusal Perera at 27/1 and then Moeen Ali removed the other Sri Lankan opener, Tilikaratne Dilshan, for 26.

But from then on it was an exhibition; a perfect example of how to bat in Sri Lanka from two of the finest batsmen to have been produced by the host nation.

Jaywardene and Sangakkara made England's meager total seem shameful and the pair were able to knock-off the winning runs with 10.4 overs to spare, in a game which had been reduced to 45 overs per side.

England's batting has been under greater examination than ever in previous years.

The changing of the Head Coach and the batting coach, as well as the removal of a certain Kevin Pietersen, has not been able to resolve inconsistencies which, once again, left England with an uphill struggle.

Moeen Ali came crashing back to reality with a single-figure score after his century in the first ODI and Alastair Cook's (22) top-edge rewarded Dilshan with the wicket of both England openers.

Ian Bell's place in the one-day team has been questioned a lot recently and, despite receiving his 150th cap in the format, a score of 11 failed to silence his critics as he handed Rangana Herath (1-40) his first and only wicket.

Cook’s wicket made the score 37/3 and after an aggressive approach against the spin, the visitors retreated to a more civil manner of finding runs.

Eoin Morgan (16) and Root led an initial recovery before the former fell with the score at 75/4 to Thisara Perera.

Root, now joined by Bopara, sought to salvage what he could from this inadequate start to the innings adding 42 runs for the fifth wicket.

But the fact that this was the highest partnership of the innings was, in itself, a signifier of how badly England had applied themselves, losing wickets at regular intervals after Root was removed.

England went on to lose their final six wickets for 67 runs, with Bopara accounting for the majority of these runs after Jos Buttler (7) and Chris Woakes (15) failed to support the Essex all-rounder.

Now on 173/7, Bopara's approach began to change, having run out of accomplished batting partners, but this led to him being caught off Mendis, who finished with figures of 3-33.

Mendis claimed the wicket of Finn as Sri Lanka took their second wicket with the score on 180 and Dhammika Prasad (2-16) wrapped up the innings by bowling Harry Gurney for a duck.

The visitors had been bowled out in 43 of their 45 overs with a severely below-par score, a score which was made to look even more embarrassing when two of the worlds greats combined to humble England.

A 15th ODI hundred partnership between Jayawardene and Sangakkara, who have 815 ODI caps between them, demonstrated the extent of England’s deficiencies in this format.

England have now lost 15 of their last 22 completed ODI's against Test-playing opposition and, if success papers over cracks, there are major holes in England's one-day technique.

Make no mistake, the quality of some players is difficult to plan for, but when your own side is lacking in quality, it can be easy for the opposition to dominate and in this match England were outplayed in all capacities.

The series continues on Wednesday in Hambantota.