 Strauss was caught behind for 12 to complete his bad day |
Stand-in England captain Andrew Strauss admitted his team had a day to forget in their 20-run defeat by Sri Lanka. "It's not one to dwell on. We let ourselves down at the beginning of the innings with the ball and bat.
"We didn't put the ball in the right areas, maybe we were striving too hard to take wickets and Sri Lanka took advantage of anything loose," he said.
"We dragged it back well in the second half of the innings and we should have chased 258 but early wickets cost us."
The one highlight for the inexperienced England team was the performance of spin bowling all-rounder Jamie Dalrymple in only his second one-day international.
Dalrymple was unfortunate not to pick up a wicket in his five overs for 28 and then kept England's hopes alive with 67 from 87 balls.
 | We probably finished 30 runs short after the start we had but the bowlers did a brilliant job |
"Jamie Dalrymple showed everyone what he could do and handled the big stage exceptionally well.
"I have seen him play many innings for Middlesex and the one question mark was could he make the step up?
"I always felt he had the character and temperament to do it and he proved that today. Hopefully he can use it as a launchpad to go onto bigger things in the series," said Strauss
"While he and Tres were in we felt we had a good chance of winning but unfortunately the Sri Lankans bowled pretty well at the back end."
The series now moves to The Oval on Tuesday and Strauss was well aware his team would have to reduce the number of extras, having conceded a crucial English one-day record of 42.
"Guys have got to work hard in practice but the important thing is to focus on what we did well at the back end and hopefully if we take that into Tuesday we'll start better and come back strongly."
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Interview: Andrew Strauss