Captain Eoin Morgan will not entertain thoughts of a premature World Cup exit even though a nine-wicket defeat by Sri Lanka left England on the brink of disaster. England suffered yet more pain at the Wellington Regional Stadium as centuries from Lahiru Thirimanne and Kumar Sangakkara inspired a record pursuit of 309 for six. Defeat leaves England needing to beat lower-ranked Bangladesh and Afghanistan in their remaining pool games and, even then, it might not be enough to keep them alive. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Cricket World Cup Highlights: England vs Sri Lanka . Eoin Morgan talks to the press after another disappointing defeat for England at the Cricket World Cup . Kumar Sangakkara (centre) hit 117 not out and, alongside Lahiru Thirimanne, put England to the sword . Morgan was not willing to consider the prospect, however, of an early flight home after his side's third loss in four games at the tournament. 'It's not even a thought at the moment,' he said. 'Two games to win to get us into a quarter-final.' Morgan's side never got going in both of those games, but after Joe Root's career-best 121 had put England in the box seat at the half-way stage, the bowlers posed little threat as Thirimanne and Sangakkara embarked on an unbeaten 212-run stand to coast home with 16 balls in hand. 'It definitely is harder to take,' Morgan said. 'When you don't turn up for a race like those first two games it's scratched. Today when we turn up and we're beaten in the fashion we were is harder to take.' One-day captain Morgan (centre) leads England off the pitch in Wellington after their nine-wicket defeat . Thirimanne (left) and Sangakkara helped Sri Lanka to a comfortable win over England in New Zealand . Morgan bemoaned a bowling performance in which he claimed England simply bowled too many bad balls. Thirimanne certainly agreed, after he had suggested in his earlier press conference that batting against England's bowlers had been 'very easy'. The opener was asked to compare England's attack to Afghanistan, who almost pulled off a stunning win over Sri Lanka earlier in the tournament, and said: 'To be honest that day Afghanistan's bowlers did really well but there was a little bit for the seamers. 'Today it was very easy for me to be honest.' Morgan was at a loss to explain why his bowlers were so ineffective and will wait to see a statistical breakdown of England's bowling performance in the next couple of days when they will take time off after flying to Adelaide. Thirimanne plays a shot on the way to scoring a century as Sri Lanka made light work of England's bowlers . Thirimanne is almost down on one knee during his knock (left) as he celebrates with Sangakkara (right) 'No. I don't have a theory yet,' he said. 'We bowled a lot of bad balls. Over the next couple of days we'll get the HawkEye stuff back and the proof will be in that. My feeling is we bowled a lot of bad balls.' The skipper denied that the England attack was too predictable in the light of Thirimanne's observations, adding: 'In terms of being too predictable you look at the best sides and they're predictably good. When we're firing we are predictably good. 'We've got two tall guys who are effective, they've got pace and bounce, and two guys who swing the ball and Moeen who does his job. 'When we bowl well we put sides under pressure and create opportunities - today we didn't.' Root celebrates  after reaching a century against Sri Lanka, but it wasn't enough to secure a win for England . Morgan, post-match, did not entertain thoughts of an early exit, instead remaining confident of progression . England were not helped by missing opportunities in the field, most significantly when Root grassed a chance at first slip off Stuart Broad when Thirimanne was on just three. The Sri Lanka openers then put on a century stand to pave the way for a chase that easily broke the previous record at the ground - 254 for four achieved by South Africa against New Zealand three years ago. 'You can talk about the chances we put down. Thirimanne was one,' Morgan said. 'It would have brought Sangakkara to the wicket earlier with more chance of him getting out. He played well. He came in an ideal situation.' England have now been soundly beaten by the three sides ranked higher than them in the group and, should they reach the knockout stages, there is apparently a large gap to be bridged if they are to make any impression. 'Losing any game is always a concern,' Morgan added. James Taylor drops a catch on the boundary as England failed to build on their score in Wellington . Sangakkara and team-mate Thirimanne shake hands with Morgan after Sri Lanka's nine-wicket win . 'Over the next few days, we'll have them off, and then we'll reconvene. Me and Mooresy will have a sit down along with the backroom staff and debrief the game and see where we've gone wrong and how we can get better.' Morgan is confident, though, that he will have no problem in lifting his young squad who now have an eight-day gap to stew over their latest defeat before they meet Bangladesh at the Adelaide Oval. 'It's not a big deal getting those guys up,' he said. 'It's a World Cup everybody is like a kid at Christmas, they want to play and they want to win. That part of it is easy. 'It's simple things moving forward. I keep banging on about them because we haven't done them so far this World Cup. 'The simpler we keep it moving forward, the more obvious what we do or have to do over the next 10 days. That will be the message from me to the players.'
Sri Lanka beat England by nine wickets at the Cricket World Cup . The defeat leaves England with three losses from their first four matches . Eoin Morgan will not entertain thoughts of a premature World Cup exit . England need to beat Bangladesh and Afghanistan in their final two matches, and even that might not be enough to see them through .