Morgan, who captained the hosts in the absence of groin-injury victim Alastair Cook, saw his side well beaten in the second clash of a five-match series.
Having moved 1-0 up with victory at The Oval on Thursday, England came crashing back down to earth as they capitulated to 99 all out in pursuit of 257.
Tillakaratne Dilshan was named man of the match, after underpinning Sri Lanka’s total of 256-8 with a classy 88, while Nuwan Kulasekara tore through the England top order and finished with figures of 3-15 from six overs.
Morgan offered England’s only resistance with a knock of 40, and the stand-in skipper was scathing in his appraisal of events.
“It was as bad as we can bat,” he said. “Our batting was terrible throughout, one of the worst performances I’ve been a part of for England. I can’t explain why we played that badly.
“It has been a disappointing day – regardless of who is captain. We have under-performed massively, particularly with the bat, and it’s inexcusable, given the conditions that we’re used to playing in.
“The two new balls we did find a little bit tricky but we lost wickets throughout the whole innings. We didn’t seem to have any partnership of substance throughout and again that made it hugely difficult.”
In contrast to Morgan, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews was delighted with his side and reserved particular praise for the bowling attack.
“We were not sure about our score – we thought it was about par, but the bowlers were excellent again and took early wickets,” he said.
“It was cold and it was seaming a lot, Kulasekara is unplayable in these conditions.”
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