Cook backs England to bounce back

By Matt Somerford

Captain Alastair Cook believes England can bounce back from a 133-run Duckworth/Lewis defeat at the SWALEC Stadium, despite admitting to a worrying trend of falling behind in series.

England were skittled for just 161 after a Suresh Raina century - his first in four-and-a-half years - accelerated India to 304 for six.

It meant England have now lost the first completed game in six of their past seven ODI series.

And while Cook was left to lament being "out-skilled" in all departments he pointed to England's recovery in the recent Investec Test Series success over India as reason for optimism ahead of the third Royal London match at Nottingham on Saturday.

"You only have to look at the Test matches. We lost the second Test match and we bounced back well,"he told ecb.co.uk.

"You don't want to keep going 1-0 behind in series but we have done that and we have to come back strong in the next game.

"It's all aspects we have to improve on and we have to start in the next game."

Cook knows, however, that there will be much to improve upon after Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni stole the initiative in a 144-run stand in 111 balls.

England had been in pole position midway through the India innings, with Chris Woakes - who took 4-53 - and James Anderson enjoying a cloudy morning after Cook opted to bowl.

India were 26 for two after the 10-over powerplay and were still stumbling along, despite a patient Rohit Sharma fifty, until Raina and Dhoni began an onslaught England had no answers for.

"That Raina partnership with Dhoni took the game away from us and we probably reacted quite slowly to that," Cook said.

"In a five-match series you do have chances to bounce back and it's onwards and upwards really.

"We didn't play very well. There's no point hiding behind that - 300 was too many on that wicket.

"I don't think it was a 160 wicket, but 30 extras just shows that we were sloppy with the ball."

Chris Jordanwas the chief culprit as England conceded 16 wides - with the Sussex man delivering 12 of them.

He was not alone in having an off day, although Woakes showed his aptitude with both the new ball and at the death.

"The bowlers will know that (they need to improve) and they'll go away in the next couple of days," Cook said.

"The batters got off to a good start and then we collapsed a little bit to be bowled out for 160.

"We're going to have to look at the reasons why - we got out-skilled today and in general we were below India in all three departments."

Debutant Alex Hales provided one plus point as he top-scored with 40 and provided a glimpse of the power he has been entrusted to bring to the top of the order.

With Cook he added 54 to give England a solid start to their pursuit before a clattered of five for 31 derailed matters.

"He (Hales) hit the ball really cleanly and has been hitting the ball really cleanly," Cook said.

"It's a really good start and you can see what he brings to the top of the order but all of us need to go away - 40 being the top score, you are not going to win many games of cricket from that."