Captain Paul Collingwood admitted England's middle order collapse was the key to the 119-run defeat by Sri Lanka in the first ODI.
Watch England's series in Sri Lanka live on Sky Sports
Captain Paul Collingwood admitted England's middle order collapse was the key to the 119-run defeat by Sri Lanka in the
first ODI at Dambulla.
England slumped to 150 all out in the first match of a five-match series.
The skipper was satisfied with the performance in the field - Sri Lanka were restricted to 269-7 - but felt the game was lost by the middle order.
Disappointed
Collingwood said: "The way the guys bowled, we were very happy with that - 270 on a pretty good pitch, but we are disappointed with the run chase.
"I'm not going to start making excuses about it being a good toss to win - it was losing the middle order at the time we did, a crucial part of the game.
"Hopefully we are going to improve in that area next time and get a win."
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene added: "I think when we saw the wicket we realised we had to be patient and keep wickets in hand, and the openers got us off to a solid start.
"We had to assess the conditions and thought 250-260 would be a competitive score for us.
"Overall, the way we handled the situation was very good. It was a very good all-round batting effort but we can improve in certain areas."
Drifted
Opener Alastair Cook top-scored for England with a battling 46 but conceded the game drifted away.
The Essex batsman told
Sky Sports: "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.
"I thought we bowled really well but our fielding, by the standards of the summer, we probably gave away a few too many runs there.
"We had a good start but kept losing too many wickets.
"We will now sit down and have a chat about what we didn't do quite so well. We will talk about how we can perform and how we can put them under pressure.
"We now know that the wicket is going to be like here so there can be no excuses."
The second match of the series takes place at the same ground on Thursday.
