Vaughan: The better team won

England captain Michael Vaughan admitted his side came off second best in the 1-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka and accepted there was plenty of hard work ahead if they were to improve.

Rain brought an early finish and allowed the tourists to salvage the third and final Test in Galle, closing 167 runs behind in their second innings on 251 for six.

"Throughout the whole series, we have been beaten by a better team. Sri Lanka have been better than us and that is why they won 1-0," said the England captain on Sky Sports 2. "If we are honest, the rain has saved us from a 2-0 defeat."

He added: "We did start well (in Kandy) and I guess that is where the series was lost because we got into a good position but we couldn't make it work for us."

England now have a break before flying out to New Zealand for a three-Test tour in March and Vaughan and coach Peter Moores will be looking for an improvement.

"I can't fault the effort of the team but there are a few areas we need to improve," said Vaughan. "We have enough talent we just need a bit more expertise and I'm sure we will put it right in 2008.

"There are a lot of areas we can go away and work on. We need to reassess and get our game in order for the New Zealand series.

"It has been a real learning curve for me and Peter to assess where the team is at.

"It has been hard to really balance the team. We were up for the challenge, we just could not get our game in order."