Jayasuriya put us under a lot of pressure - Strauss

CRICKET: England's stand-in captain Andrew Strauss called for big hundreds from his top order batsmen for his team to change their fortunes in the five-match one-day international series against Sri Lanka which they trail by 0-2 after two matches.

"We haven't had a one-day hundreds from our top order for a while. I like to see a couple of them before the end of the series so that we can come back and win it," said Strauss after his team were beaten by 46 runs in the second one-day international played at the Brit Oval in London here Tuesday. England lost the first match of the series by 20 runs at Lord's on Sunday. The third game is scheduled at Chester-le-Street in

Durham for Saturday.

Strauss was worried that the failure of the top order to put enough runs on the board is affecting the batting of his key player Kevin Pietersen who is put under some kind of pressure which deprives him from playing his natural game. The South African-born batsman made 73 off 76 balls before becoming one of three victims of man-of-the-match Sanath Jayasuriya.

"Kevin is an absolutely top quality world class player. Once a player of that quality gets out it's going to be tough for other people. The way that (Paul) Collingwood and (Jamie) Dalrymple played it showed we've got firepower towards the back end. The onus is on the top order to get us into a position where they can play with a lot of freedom," said Strauss.

"We made some improvements from Lord's, especially in the first 10 overs we bowled much better than we did the other day. We have to give some credit to Sri Lanka for putting us under a lot of pressure. (Sanath) Jayasuriya is a very experienced and high quality opening batsmen. He was ably supported by the rest of the batsmen," Strauss continued.

"The positive thing is there are a lot of areas we can improve and if we do so there is no reason why we can't put the Sri Lankans under pressure in the last few games," he said.

Once again it was the Extras that England could reflect back on solemnly for losing the match. Following the record 42 extras conceded at Lord's, at the Oval they allowed a further 33.

"The extras are something we've got to look at. I said after the last game that one-day games are decided on small margins. If we are going to give that many extras it means you are asking for trouble. We need to

address it," said Strauss. "We are working on it and we have to be patient with our young bowlers. There is no point in panic stations. The key to bowling in one-day cricket is to bowl very straight and making the

batsmen try and manoeuvre from straight of the wicket and take risks."

Sanath was brilliant - Mahela

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene praised the performance of his former captain Jayasuriya and said:

"We wanted one of the guys to bat through the innings and make a big score. Sanath did the job for us brilliantly. Our middle order also clicked well."

"We knew it was a very good wicket and our main concern was the power play. The 20 overs we wanted to keep England to a minimum as possible. In the end it was okay," said Jayawardene.

"The only disappointment was the fielding. The standards we have set came out only in patches. The fielding today looked a bit tentative. We'll have to make sure that it does not happen again," he said.

Sri Lanka grassed as many as three chances which if taken would have given them a bigger winning margin than the 46 runs.

Jayawardene said that England not being at full strength was not their concern. "We were without Marvan (Atapattu) and Dilhara (Fernando) for this game. We have to play around with basically what we've got and get the job done. That is our main focus as a team," he said.

Jayawardene said that Fernando who has bowled splendidly on his return to international cricket had complained of a pain in his ankle after the Lord's game.

"We thought that he probably would be able to play today. In the morning when he was bowling the pain became severe and we did not want to take a risk with him," said Jayawardene.

Fernando's replacement Ruchira Perera proved a poor substitute when he went for 40 runs off five overs without taking a wicket. But thankfully Sri Lanka had put enough runs on the board for the rest of the bowlers to bowl England out.

Jayasuriya said that he was quite happy to contribute towards his country's victory. The fact still remains that when the master blaster fires on all cylinders Sri Lanka are always ensured of victory.

On this occasion he slammed a thunderous 122 out of Sri Lanka's total of 319-8 and then took three wickets for 51 runs with his left-arm spin to help dismiss England for 273.

"When I play for my country I must perform in the departments I am good at. Today was once of those days where I was able to do something for the team," said Jayasuriya.