Heather Knight admitted Sri Lanka served up some “humble pie” for England after a crushing defeat at Chelmsford, however has no regrets over their strategy to this collection.
England misplaced by eight wickets after they had been skittled for 104 with Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu smacking 55 in fast time to safe victory for the vacationers’ with 40 balls to spare.
It ranges the three-match T20 collection forward of Wednesday’s decider in Derby and resulted in Knight going through questions over the choice with head coach Jon Lewis to experiment in opposition to the eighth finest nation in Twenty20 cricket.
Sophia Dunkley and Nat Sciver-Brunt had been rested whereas England chosen 5 gamers aged 22 or youthful in Saturday’s XI, however captain Knight defended their proper to rotate with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh solely a 12 months away.
Knight mentioned: “We want to expose people to international cricket and we were pretty clear that was the goal at the start of this series.
“No one was saying anything at Hove when we smashed 180 off 17 overs so no, I wouldn’t change a thing.
“In a busy summer, we knew there was a slight opportunity to try a few new players. You don’t get a huge amount of opportunities to do that because we haven’t got too many games before that World Cup in Bangladesh.
“It wasn’t about underestimating Sri Lanka at all. It was about what is best for us as a side moving forward and we needed to get some caps into young players to see where they are at.
“We’ve had a bad day, we’ve lost a game of cricket but there will be no big enquiry into it.
“Sri Lanka have played very well and they have given us some humble pie to be honest, but it is a good lesson for youngsters that if you are not quite on it and not able to execute your skills how you want, then you can get punished.”
After posting 186 for 4 in Sussex on Thursday, this batting show couldn’t have been extra chalk and cheese with England lowered to 21 for 3 contained in the powerplay.
Knight and Amy Jones briefly rebuilt earlier than the wonderful Inoka Ranaweera accounted for them on her technique to figures of two for 25.
When England had been faltering on 66 for eight, an undesirable file regarded on the playing cards however Charlie Dean hit 34 to assist the hosts past their earlier lowest T20 complete of 87 – posted in opposition to Australia in 2015.
Sri Lanka seamer Udeshika Prabodhani ended Dean’s 33-run partnership with Issy Wong and yorked Dean quickly after to dismiss England for 104.
Wong would go on to battle with the ball, producing an array of no-balls in a 10-delivery opening over.
Athapaththu by no means blinked within the chase although, smashing Kate Cross for 21 earlier than she added one other most in a scintillating 26-ball fifty that helped the vacationers clinch a primary T20 win over England on the tenth time of asking.
“We all had a bad day at the same time unfortunately,” Knight mirrored.
“I thought they bowled really well, their spinners were impressive and the lengths they bowled. Credit to them but yeah sometimes this happens in cricket.
“We’ve obviously got a very inexperienced side and a lot of people who are learning their trade, so it identifies areas where we need to get better at.
“Even before this game we identified spin as an area where we can keep getting better and with the World Cup in Bangladesh that will be something potentially on the radar out there.
“Look, quite a humbling day but it is now an opportunity for us to hone in on what we can do better moving forward.”
Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu added: “Today was really good for us, we executed the right plans and especially the spinners were really good.
“The wicket was helpful, so finally we won, that’s really good for us. For myself and my team, this is a huge moment for women’s cricket in Sri Lanka.”
