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England series rankings - 187

2007-12-30

Truth be told, England have been pretty much outplayed by a superb Sri Lanka side on their home soil, conceding the series 1-0 despite battling for a draw in the final Test.

TMS analyst Simon Hughes has given his marks out of 10 for the England players. Do you agree with them?

Michael Vaughan - 6/10
Failed to convert despite making several promising starts. In patches he batted so fluently he looked like he was trying to regain his one-day international place!
I was a little disappointed with his captaincy which was a little formulaic at times.

Alastair Cook - 7/10
Continued his batting education and finally managed to convert a good start with a match-saving century at Galle. But he needs to work on his fielding especially close to the wicket.

Ian Bell - 7/10
The stylist of the team looking at ease against all types of bowling. His two innings at Kandy were particularly impressive. However, if I were to be critcal I'd say his main fault is that he continues to give his wicket away when he is well set.

Kevin Pietersen - 4/10
His dismissal in Colombo, flashing at a wide one from Chaminda Vaas, underlines the pressure of expectation he feels to dominate. But he has been unable to do so here as he would have liked. Was out-thought by Murali and Jayawardene in the second innings at Galle to complete his first Test series without scoring a single half-century.

Paul Collingwood - 7/10
Workmanlike as ever and marshalled the lower order very well on a couple of occasions, but nothing spectacular. Bowling was useful at times.

Ravi Bopara - 3/10
Got himself into the side by showing real promise and energy at the start of the tour with batting, bowling and fielding. But unfortunately at the moment he looks well out of his depth at Test level symbolised by his chaotic first-ball dismissal in the second innings at Galle.

Matt Prior - 5/10
Held his own with the bat and kept pretty well in the first two Tests. But he had a shocker with the gloves at Galle and may soon be jettisoned.

Ryan Sidebottom - 6/10
He kept running in willingly in alien conditions and was unlucky with dropped catches off his bowling. But apart from in Colombo he rarely struck gold and looked very tired by the end. On the plus side he batted with guts.

Steve Harmison - 8/10
Shades of his best in his later bowling in Colombo where he dragged life out of a dead pitch and never stinted from effort. Could not have done much more.

Matthew Hoggard - 7/10
Bowled superbly in Kandy to reduce Sri Lanka to 44-5 , but then he suffered a recurrence of his back injury and was not as effective when he returned.

Monty Panesar - 4/10
Found the going hard against expert players of spin and struggled with rhythm and the burden of expectation.

James Anderson - 4/10
Difficult to judge on just one appearance. But he didn't seem to have any weapons that could make an impact and couldn't contain the Sri Lankan batsman.

Stuart Broad - 4/10
Enthusiastic but needs more strength and penetration to perform at this level.

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