Cook expects England response
Alastair Cook knows significant improvement is a must after England's batting let them down in Friday's first NatWest Series match against New Zealand at Lord's.
Cook described England's 227 for nine as a "nothing score" on a good pitch, and it was one they had little chance of defending - even after James Anderson took two wickets in the first over of the Kiwis' reply. Martin Guptill (103 not out) and Ross Taylor (54) took over in a third-wicket stand of 122, leaving England to rue a succession of poor shots after eight batsmen had reached double-figures but none passed 37.
The England captain said: "You always try to look at the positives as much as you can, and the good thing is everyone got in. So it doesn't seem to be a form issue - it's just one of those days where no one stuck their hand up, and took responsibility and batted throughout the innings. We will get better."
England, gearing up in this short series for the Champions Trophy in barely a week's time, have plenty of thinking to do before the second match of three in Southampton on Sunday - not least how to get by again without the help of injured frontline pace bowlers Stuart Broad and Steven Finn.
Cook, who conceded Broad and Finn's absences with respective knee and shin soreness was a "bit more than" precautionary, does not believe he needs to start telling experienced batsmen where they went wrong.
"I think we said after 20 overs 260 or 270 would be a par score on that wicket," Cook said. "We pretty much got ourselves into a position to do that, at 120 for two.
"Then obviously losing those three wickets quickly took the sting out of our innings, and it's very hard - looking at how many overs to go, and trying to bat them out. It's like a 'nothing' score, isn't it, 230?"
Cook's departure was the second of several to a shot he believes was well thought-out but poorly played.
"That is the art of one-day cricket, the risk and reward, and I actually don't think our shot options were bad ones; it was just the execution of them," he added. "That was it. You could look certainly at our top five dismissals, and say 'poor execution of shots, but probably the right shots'.
"That is one-day cricket. You're always trying to find the perfect balance of risk and reward. I don't think we were too far off today in terms of that, but we just didn't quite execute as well as we should have done."
