Dim England were defeated in the T20 series by excellent Sri Lanka

England had an unforgettable night in Derby. Photo: Reuters/Jason Cairnduff Sri Lanka beat England 117/3 by seven wickets 117/3

Four days after he was eliminated at Chelmsford with 104 points, it was another underwhelming the performance of the England team, which for the first time in history was defeated in the T20 series by the excellent team of Sri Lanka.

Where England fought the bat, Sri Lanka shone. Their captain, Chamari Atapattu, handled England's bowling effortlessly on a bleak night in Derby, where the hosts' vulnerabilities were exposed by Sri Lankan's savvy bowler Kavishi Dilhari.

Heather Knight's experimental form, by contrast, was unsuccessful. flipped to 116 with a whole over to spare as Sri Lanka stormed into the T20 decider after winning the toss and choosing bowling.

Was it the heat? Or just the unexpected splendor of Sri Lanka? For a country that enjoys only a fraction of the funding and resources of its English counterparts, who also have a thriving regional structure, this was a huge milestone in their history, ending a 20-year wait to win the series outside of Asia.

Their landmark victory was celebrated by a dozen Sri Lankans in the Incora Ground pocket who were elated as they completed the demolition of the Derby stadium over the second ranked country in women's T20 cricket.

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For England, it will be an evening they will want to forget, although head coach John Lewis emphasized that it was a learning period for his developing team. “Now we have three teenagers playing for us,” he said. “For me, it's fantastic. But now they will move away from this experience and learn how to improve their game. We are on a journey. We're trying to figure out how we want to play and how we want to approach each game. You won't know that unless you introduce them to international cricket.»

Sri Lanka won the series 2–1. after losing the first match in Hove. Credit: Reuters/Jason Cairnduff

Danny Wyatt's golden duck and a terrible mix-up between Alice Capsey and Maya Bouchier set the tone for England's lackluster performance. The latter moved the ball to a square foot and both batters began to run for two, but Bouchier carefully returned to her crease without interacting with Capsey. Caught on the same end, for Sri Lanka's gatekeeper it was a simple sack. Capsey was furious.

How they missed out on their strengths in Nat Skiver-Brant, Sophia Dunkley and Sophie Ecclestone, who are missing out on this series either through squad management or injuries. Lewis had no regrets about leaving aside some of his more experienced team leaders who were lacking in England as they tried to recover from a poor start and was confident that his side would reap the benefits in the long run when the Championship took place next year. world T20 in Bangladesh. on the horizon.

«If you don't put more pressure on young players, they may have gotten used to a normal life, then you never know how far ahead their ceiling is,» he said optimistically. . “Decision making before the show was about giving people who were on the edge of our team a chance to see what they could do under pressure. This is a really valuable exercise for us.”

Knight added some of her usual composure but was sent on her way after a botched reverse sweep sparked another disastrous spell as England lost three wickets for 11 balls before 17-year-old Mahika Gaur was thrown into the fire and caught. a pound of weight on her first ball.

Sri Lanka's middle order has hardly come under the pressure of winning a two-way streak in the last two decades after captain Atapattu led the attack with a batting 44 out of 28. View of them a captain falling six balls short of fifty may have shattered their confidence, but the night they denied their status as a semi-professional team, Harshita Madavi and Anushka Sanjeevani saw them behind the line. Sarah Glenn's withdrawal of the latter at her home ground was a slight positive for England.

Sri Lanka will be elated to make history here — winning consecutive matches against the top eight nations for the first time — and will aim to to jump-start this round of the ODI series starting this Saturday in Durham.