Strauss looks for positives

Jon Lewis excelled with the ball for England © Getty Images

Buy this photo

Captain Andrew Strauss put on a brave face at Lord's after England had gone one down in the five-match NatWest Series, but there are still three games to turn round the home side's form.

Strauss, who oversaw the 5-0 mid-summer loss against Sri Lanka, is now finding Pakistan a handful - not least in this latest seven-wicket NatWest Series reverse.

After he lost the toss, Strauss knew England would have to bat well against Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif under leaden skies.

Instead, he himself went first ball to Shoaib, who finished with 4-28.

Although a half-century seventh-wicket stand helped England muster 166 all out, it was easily eclipsed as Younis Khan (55) put the tourists on course for a victory achieved with more than three of their 40 overs to spare.

Jon Lewis gave England hope when he took two wickets with the new ball, and he might have had Younis caught behind had umpire Billy Doctrove not called a marginal no-ball.

That turning point summed up the way things are going for England, but Strauss is refusing to cite excuses.

"If we'd got that third wicket it might have been different," he conceded.

"But as soon as you start cursing bad luck, I think you are not looking at the right reasons why you are not doing well."

He has learned from the whitewash against Sri Lankans that now - 1-0 down with three matches to play - is not the time to panic.

Chris Read went for his shots as soon as he came to the wicket © Getty Images

Buy this photo

"The most important thing for us is that we remain positive and go out and play in a positive manner.

"We went through it with Sri Lanka and got pretty down on ourselves by the end of that series, and I know that is not the way to go.

"If you start moping around you are not helping yourselves."

Strauss is confident that England are capable of playing much better cricket.

"All you can do is back your technique, back your ability, back the talent in your team," he said.

"If we do that we have a decent chance of bouncing back in this series."

Strauss would not have chosen to bat first in such bowler-friendly circumstances but he insists Shoaib, Asif and the rest of a vintage Pakistan pace attack deserve praise.

"It probably wasn't one of the best tosses to lose," he said.

"But all credit to their bowlers - they took advantage of those conditions magnificently.

"It is very easy when you are bowling in those conditions to try to bowl people out too much, but I thought they got it just about bang on.

"From losing those three wickets early, it was always going to be tough work to post a decent total.

"We scrapped well to get 166 - but we needed more than that."

After Rikki Clarke and Chris Read had come to the rescue, England again faltered, losing their last four wickets for six runs as Shoaib finished off the tail.

Rikki Clarke on the attack as he spearheads the England recovery © Getty Images

Buy this photo

Strauss knows it is England's early batsmen who must do better, though.

"Sometimes I suppose you have to hold up your hands and say, 'Well bowled guys'. Unfortunately, with the new ball, they were just too good for us," he said.

"But it's a case of the top order needing to score the majority of the runs.

"You can't expect numbers nine, 10 and 11 to be hitting Shoaib for fours and sixes at the back-end of a game."

Lewis proved his noted ability to shine in home conditions. "I'm really pleased for him tonight. He showed us what he can do," said Strauss.

"He showed he can exploit those conditions against the best batsmen in the world.

"All credit to him. He's been waiting in the wings all summer and champing at the bit to get a run-out.

"When he did get it he stuck to the basics, and they paid off for him.

"He's done everything that was asked of him today."

The same could be said of Shoaib - and Strauss is not disputing that.

"Shoaib's bowled exceptionally well - pretty much how we expected him to bowl.

"We're not expecting any favours from him - we expect him to bowl like that time and time again," he said.

Shoaib, meanwhile, hinted there is much more to come from him as he makes his way back from the ankle surgery which has ruled him out for most of this year.

"I'm still at 80% of my fitness just yet. But I've been a lucky guy to get so many wickets," he said.

"I wasn't going for the wickets - just going for dot balls as much as I can.

"I'm still bowling at an average of 90mph. I should be bowling at 94. But it seems to be working out and it's good enough for me."