England captain Andrew Strauss was under no illusions that too many errors cost his side as they went down to a 75-run defeat against Sri Lanka in Galle; their fourth straight Test defeat on the sub-continent this winter. The tourists never recovered from another disappointing first innings total of less than 200, with the English batsmen failing to get to grips with the left arm spin of man-of-the-match Rangana Herath, who finished the match with 12 wickets.
The second innings was an improvement, although without Jonathan Trott's century it would have been another comprehensive failure for the English batting line-up. Trott, along with Ian Bell, Graeme Swann and James Anderson, were the only players to come out of the defeat with any credit. The problem for England was the sheer number of basic errors – something which hadn't been an issue for much of the last two years and fans of the Betfair cricket betting odds will be wondering if they can sort out their problems.
Dropped catches and shocking shot selection put paid to any hope England had of claiming a 1-0 lead in this two-Test series, with Sri Lanka producing the sort of performance that they have been struggling to find over recent times.
Strauss made it clear England would need to tighten up in all aspects of the game if they are going to start winning on these turning Asian pitches, and the England cricket betting reflects this.
"We're bitterly disappointed. In truth we made too many mistakes to win the game. We fought very hard but we left ourselves with too much to do."
"All credit to Sri Lanka, they put us under pressure, outplayed us and deserved the victory."
"There's no room for mistakes. If you take them you've got be lucky to get away with them and this game we weren't. We were in a great position to make use of the wicket but we all fell a bit too softly."
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