DAMBULLA (Sri Lanka), Nov 18: England captain Michael Vaughan says his players face a true test of character after their 10-wicket hammering by Sri Lanka in the first one-dayer on Tuesday.

England scored just 88, their lowest total against Sri Lanka and the second lowest in their history. The home side romped home with 36.1 overs to spare.

“I said it was going to be tough before the series but we didn’t expect it to be that tough,” said Vaughan.

“There are no excuses and we can’t blame anything — we just played very poorly,” he added.

“(Chaminda) Vaas proved he is very good in these conditions and we were never in the game after the first couple of overs.

“It will now be a big ask to bounce back from this in these conditions against a very experienced opposition — it will be a true test of character.”

Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu singled out newcomers Nuwan Kulasekera and Dinusha Fernando who did the early damage.

“They have been showing a lot of potential in the nets and we wanted to check them out in a game — they came out beautifully,” said Atapattu.

The second match is in Colombo on Friday.—Reuters