LONDON: Two successive defeats against South Africa and a run of poor form persuaded Michael Vaughan to quit as England cricket captain yesterday.

Vaughan, 33, was England’s most successful Test captain, leading the team to 26 wins in 51 Tests, including the Ashes triumph against Australia in 2005.

But he scored only 40 runs in five innings in the first three Tests against South Africa.

When the tourists won the Third Test to take a winning 2-0 lead in the series, Vaughan decided it was time to go.

It was also announced Paul Collingwood had resigned as England one-day captain.

Vaughan will take a three-week break and is not available for the final Test at The Oval starting Thursday. But he said he wanted to continue playing for Yorkshire and England.

Ironically it was against South Africa five years ago that Vaughan ascended to the captaincy when Nasser Hussain resigned, also after a poor performance in Birmingham.

Meanwhile, Indian teenager Ishant Sharma gave a superb display of fast bowling to help India square the series with a 170-run victory over Sri Lanka in the Second Test in Galle, Sri Lanka.

Sharma finished with 3-20 off 15 testing overs as Sri Lanka was shot out for 136 in its second innings in the closing session on the fourth day, chasing a challenging 307-run target.

India lost the opening match of the three-Test series by an innings and 239 runs.