Outplayed England have work to do, says Vaughan

Rain saved England from probable defeat in the final test. They finished on 251 for six, still trailing Sri Lanka by 167 runs after being bowled out for 81 in the first innings.

“The way we batted in the first innings is something that I haven’t seen for a while,” Vaughan told a news conference.

“It’s nice that we learnt in the second innings and acquitted ourselves better, especially Cook who showed tremendous character but to be brutally honest the weather saved us from a 2-0 defeat, which is disappointing,” he said.

“Sri Lanka is undoubtedly, after Australia, the hardest place to go and play cricket and we just didn’t have enough skill and expertise to go on to force the game and win it.

“We had enough fire in us to get two draws but we didn’t have enough to skill to go and win a game,” he added.

“We didn’t bowl as well as we could, bat as well as we could and field as well as we could. You throw all those into a park they are not great ingredients for success. Full credit for the way their team played their cricket — they make it very, very difficult when you play here.”

Vaughan said he hoped the experience would prove the last low of England cricket “and that we can now start a winning culture.

“But there’s a lot of hard work to go before we can even start talking about being a force again.”