Collingwood unhappy with batting

1 October 2007, Dambulla

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Captain Paul Collingwood acknowledged England's shortcomings with the bat after their 119-run loss to Sri Lanka.

Their hopes of achieving a victory target of 270 evaporated after they slumped from 58-1 to 102-6.

"Losing the middle order the way we did, obviously that was the crucial part of the game," said Collingwood.

"It's not many times you lose Bell, Pietersen and myself for not many runs - and Owais [Shah]. Hopefully we can improve on that area next time."

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Collingwood defended England's decision to leave out spin bowler Monty Panesar despite the amount of turn obtained by replacement Graeme Swann.

He said: "I thought the way the boys bowled on that pitch was excellent.

"Swanny came in and bowled against some very good Sri Lankan players. I think he did a great job for us. I'm pretty happy with the team selection."

But Collingwood admitted: "Sri Lanka's bowlers are at the levels we have to try to get to.

"[Farveez] Maharoof showed what you have to do on that kind of pitch; he banged away at a really good length, had a mixture of slower balls as well and he was very hard to hit - likewise [Dilhara] Fernando and [Lasith] Malinga as well."

Collingwood backed his side to bounce back in the best-of-five series, with the next two games also in Dambulla on Thursday and Sunday.

"It's not over yet, and there's still plenty of confidence in the dressing room... but it was disappointing to get bowled out for 150 on that pitch," he told BBC Sport.

Opening batsman Alastair Cook was England's top scorer with 46 but it was a painstaking effort as he struggled to keep the momentum going as wickets tumbled at the other end.

"It's tough with the rate going up, it's hard knowing what to do. You want to bat through but can't keep letting the rate go up," Cook commented.

"We will talk about how we can perform and we can put them under pressure. We now know that the wicket is going to be like here so there can be no excuses."

Cook offered words of encouragement for new opening partner Phil Mustard, who marked his England debut with 27 off 17 balls.

"It was good fun. He's a clean striker of the ball. If he can keeping getting us off to a flier, then that's good for us," he added.

Source: BBC Sport