England's lurching between attack and defence leaves them in no man's land

The light at the end of the tunnel was a train. England have spent the last four weeks travelling around India talking about responding to setbacks and awaiting the statement performance that has never arrived. If their defeats to New Zealand, Afghanistan and South Africa were bad, this might have been the worst of the lot.

The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru was a venue that should have suited England perfectly. In the first of five effective must-win games, they chose to bat first on a flat pitch with short boundaries, rattled along to 44 for 0 after six overs and could finally afford to dream big: would 350 be enough to flatten Sri Lanka, or should they eye 400?

England were 146 for 8 by the time of Maheesh Theekshana’s leg-side wide to David Willey in the 32nd over of their innings, yet what followed encapsulated their World Cup so far. Kusal Mendis shuffled across, took the ball cleanly and was pulling off his right glove when he spotted that Adil Rashid was out of his ground at the non-striker’s end.

Mendis’ dead-eye throw found Rashid short of his ground and as Adrian Holdstock sent the decision upstairs, everyone involved knew exactly what had happened. It was a moment of ingenuity, skill and, above all, self-confidence – three traits that England have sorely lacked over the last three weeks.

Once, England were masters of rotating the strike and milking spin through the middle overs. Now, they seem to lurch between attack and defence, and have lost more wickets to spin (22) than any other team in this tournament; their batters have managed five 50-plus scores between them, the fewest of any team.

Stokes briefly threatened to play the sort of saviour innings that England anticipated when he declared himself available for the World Cup two months ago. He was given out lbw while reverse-sweeping Theekshana after eking out 13 off his first 36 balls, but when a thin bottom edge saved him on review he started to grind through the gears.

He cracked Dilshan Madushanka for three pulled fours through midwicket, and dragged Dhananjaya de Silva’s offspin into the same direction. But as he gradually ran out of partners, Stokes decided it was time to take matters into his own hands: he lined up the upper tier when swinging hard at Kumara’s sharp bouncer, and picked out substitute fielder Dushan Hemantha, just off the rope.

With England on the brink of elimination, Stokes total contribution for the tournament reads 48 runs off 81 balls and two catches. His return from injury – while only fit enough to play as a specialist batter – meant they picked an imbalanced side in Mumbai, then dropped their best young player in Harry Brook in Bengaluru. His retirement U-turn was meant to solve problems for England, but has only created them.

In the field, England were on a hiding to nothing with such a low total to defend. It was cruelly fitting that the only bowler to have any real impact, Willey, was not deemed good enough to feature four years ago and is the only member of this squad who was not offered one of the lucrative central contracts that were announced two days before this defeat.

England placed their faith in their golden generation, bringing them back together for one last tilt at an ICC event after a period of unprecedented success which means they are – still – the holders of both white-ball World Cups. After the triumphs of 2019 on home soil and 2022 in Australia, 2023 in India has proved one tournament too far.

The youngest player they picked on Thursday was Livingstone, who turned 30 in August and has managed 31 runs across four innings: England banked on the value of experience, but their players have looked old and jaded. In the finest tradition of England’s great sporting teams, they have fallen apart gradually, then suddenly.

This was England’s fifth straight World Cup defeat to Sri Lanka and ranks among the very worst of those – even if there have been plenty of grisly drubbings along the way. Sri Lanka were missing their captain, their best fast bowler and their first-choice spinner – and even at full strength, this is not a side to rival the 2007 or 2011 vintages.

Yet it proved more than good enough to comfortably outplay a once-great England team, to the extent that Pathum Nissanka’s lofted straight six to clinch the points came in just the 26th over. It was such an early finish – wrapped up by half past seven – that a long night of soul-searching awaits.

There is not even the consolation of an early return home: England still have four internal flights to catch, four hotels to check into, four games to play. Next up? The runaway leaders, India, in Lucknow on Sunday. Perhaps the worst is still to come.

Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98