IF THE sell-out crowd at the County Ground in Bristol turned up excited to see England’s brave new dawn then they would have left sorely disappointed.

The decision to appoint three international captains for the three different formats of the game has created a lot of interest – and debate – but Stuart Broad’s first game as captain at the ground where he used to watch his dad Chris play as a youngster was one he will quickly want to forget.

World T20 champions England were beaten by nine wickets by Sri Lanka, Mahela Jayardene hitting 72 not out off 57 balls and sharing an unbroken 97 with Kumar Sangakkara to lead them to their target of 137 with 16 balls to spare.

At one stage an England win looked more than a probability but they failed to build on a partnership of 83 from 54 balls by Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen after they were put into bat first.

They looked like building a big total when on 95-2 in the 12th over, but once Morgan fell, Pietersen soon followed and England managed just one boundary for the rest of the innings as they finished on 136-9.

Jayawardene made a rapid start to his innings, but lost opening partner Sanath Jaysuriya (8) in the fifth over when the veteran hit a half-volley to Pietersen at mid-off to give debutant Jade Denbach his first international wicket.

However, Sri Lanka continued in cruise control and by the time Jayawardene pushed the ball into the offside for a single off Ravi Bopara to bring up his half-century in the 11th over, they only needed to go at a run-a-ball to reach their target.

Jayawardene edged a Broad delivery for four to seal the win in the 18th over, with Sangakkara also finishing unbeaten on 43.

England were reduced to 12-2 in the first three overs of their innings as opening batsmen Michael Lumb (2) and Craig Kieswetter (4) were both caught at mid-off after mis-timing shots off Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Kulasekera respectively.

Morgan hit a huge straight six off Lakmal to get off the mark in the fourth over and hit the next ball straight down the ground for four, with England reaching the end of the powerplay in a healthier position of 33-2.

Pietersen wasn’t to be outdone though as he hit a big six over long-on off Suraj Randiv before Malinga dropped a simple catch in the deep which would’ve seen the end of Morgan in the following over.

Morgan then made Sri Lanka pay, hitting two huge onside sixes off Thisara Perera, who went for 23 off the 11th over of the innings with Pietersen also hitting him down the ground for a maximum.

However, Morgan was out in the next over for 47 off 32 balls, Mahela Jayawardene making a good catch at deep mid-wicket off Lasith Malinga.

Pietersen’s weakness against slow left-armers was shown up again when he was bowled by Sanath Jayasuriya for 41 off 27 balls and then Samit Patel was rather lazily run out on his return to the England side by Jayawardene.

Ravi Bopara’s (19) scratchy innings came to an end when he was bowled by Jayasuriya (2-18) and Luke Wright (9) followed when he hit a Lakmal (2-26) delivery straight to Perera at long-on.

England only hit four off the last over by Malinga (2-15) – three of which were leg byes – with Chris Woakes (7) top edging to Mathews and Stuart Broad (0) being run out off the final two balls.