England captain Alastair Cook was a proud if frustrated skipper after rain helped deny his side a series clean sweep against Sri Lanka as the third Test at Lord's ended in a draw on Monday.
Rain meant only 12.2 overs were possible on Monday’s final day, with Sri Lanka 78 for one when play was finally abandoned after Cook set them a target of 362 for victory.
The result meant England took the three-match series 2-0 after crushing wins by an innings and 88 runs and nine wickets at Leeds and Durham respectively.
“It could have been a really good day’s cricket – 100 overs to get 300 runs on a pretty good Lord’s wicket,” said Cook.
However, opening batsman Cook – who made 85 in the first innings at Lord’s – was proud of his team’s performance during a series where he became the first England batsman, and the youngest from any country, to score 10,000 Test runs.
“We won two, one by an innings, one by nine wickets and we declared in the other to try to set up a win,” said the 31-year-old Essex left-hander. “A pretty good three games.”
England now hold Test series trophies against every other leading nation except Pakistan, who they face in a four-Test series starting at Lord's on July 14.
“Of course there is always that room for improvement,” said Cook.
“But we’ve won another one of the trophies and we’ve got another one to go against Pakistan.”
The Sri Lanka series was a personal triumph for Jonny Bairstow, England’s wicket-keeper/batsman.
Bairstow was named man-of-the-match for his Test-best 167 not out in England’s first innings at Lord’s.
And the 26-year-old Yorkshireman was also chosen as England’s man-of-the-series after scoring 387 runs at a huge average of 129, including an innings of 140 at his Headingley home ground in Leeds.
“I’m really pleased to back up the form for Yorkshire in an England shirt,” said Bairstow, making the most of his second chance as an England player.
“It’s never nice to get dropped but that really spurred me on to try to get back in the side,” added Bairstow, who also held 19 catches during the Sri Lanka series.
Meanwhile Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka captain, looked forward to an improved showing from his side in the upcoming five-match one-day international series against England.
“I thought we started off pretty poorly in the first couple of games,” he said.
“We came into the series in our second innings in Durham (when Sri Lanka made 475).
“Now we’ve had a good month or so in England so hopefully we can come back and beat England (in the ODIs).”
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