Strauss did not have enough time to enforce a victory

"I took some advice but it is the captain's decision, I know how these wickets play at Lord's and it is very tough to get a result," he insisted.

"We wanted to be attacking, to put men around the bat and play a game their batsmen were not accustomed to.

"The guys tried their hardest and we've done most things well in this match."

Interview: England captain Andrew Strauss

England coach Duncan Fletcher added that it was important England had a wealth of runs to defend on the final day.

It's mostly a young team and they were under pressure after the first day but they got better Inzamam-ul-Haq More Pakistan reaction

"We knew it was going to be hot and we had two bowlers who are new to Test cricket," he remarked.

"We didn't want to put the spinner (Monty Panesar) under a lot of pressure by setting a target they could chase down.

"It's difficult to judge what a good total is on a flat wicket. We'd like to have scored quicker but we lost wickets at regular intervals and could never get after a good total late yesterday afternoon."

Fletcher took positive aspects out of the match, with skipper Strauss, Alastair Cook, Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell all scoring centuries.

606 VIEW I'm surprised that people thought this was England's game to win AA TMS: Have your say

"It's crucial they did get runs because we've probably relied on (Marcus) Trescothick and (Kevin) Pietersen all the time," he admitted.

"That Strauss got some runs was crucial and it turned out to be a very valuable innings and the bowlers stuck to their task.

"Cook and Collingwood played very important knocks and Bell was under tremendous pressure and played very well.

"I've always believed we've got some potential in this side, it's just a matter of getting out there and producing the goods and I think they did in this Test."

Strauss looked forward to handing the captaincy back to Andrew Flintoff if the Lancashire all-rounder comes back from injury as expected for the second Test at Old Trafford on 27 July.

"I've enjoyed the job but we're looking forward to having Fred back there's no doubt about that, obviously we'll be a stronger side with him in it," he said.

Fletcher said of Flintoff: "He seems very positive, he's trained very well with us and it's good news."