Rain curtails West Indies progress

West Indies 169 for 2 (Brathwaite 68, Edwards 42*) trail New Zealand 293 by 124 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

A resolute half-century from Kraigg Brathwaite was the cornerstone of West Indies progress on the second day. However, the majority of it was lost to rain. Grey clouds had circled Kensington Oval throughout the morning session and limited the day's play to less than six overs after lunch. New Zealand might not have minded the intervention. They had begun well but lost the initiative by flitting between various lines and lengths.

The first half hour lived up to its clichéd billing with the ball buzzing past the batsmen's ears. Chris Gayle was placed under particular discomfort as Trent Boult softened him up and Tim Southee almost had him caught at leg gully. New Zealand might have persisted with the experiment a little more, but Gayle hit himself out of trouble and three fours in three balls earned him some breathing space. He was approaching a third fifty in four innings when the temptation to loft Mark Craig became too strong and he holed out at long-on. The offspinner would have relished the wear and tear on the pitch at Kensington Oval. There was rough to exploit against both right and left-handers but he could not quite assert himself the way Sulieman Benn did on the first day.

Brathwaite was one of the reasons for keeping Craig at bay. His solidity was a known quantity in West Indies. His driving was eye-catching - a healthy forward stride to underpin a strong push. He used his bottom hand to keep the ball down and none of his 10 fours bore the imprint of being hit too hard. It was a mark of his composure at the crease, but he might have been a touch too lax as he drove on the up and was caught at cover.

The scoring rates in this Test have been very brisk. Kirk Edwards contributed to the continuation of that trend. His strokes were more flashy and fueled a second-wicket partnership of 74 with four fours and a six. West Indies' top order is not often the most reliable but having gone in with five bowlers, they had extra responsibility and the response so far must be pleasing to the captain Denesh Ramdin.

New Zealand fussed over the ball for much of the morning session, trying to persuade the umpires to change it. When their efforts did bear fruit, the replacement seemed to offer the seamers a bit more bite but Boult and Southee, on whom the visitors' attack sorely depended, were rather lacklustre and West Indies benefited to the tune of 127 runs for the loss of two wickets.

New Zealand needed to streamline their plans after lunch, especially with Edwards chugging along on 41 off 45 and the new batsman, Darren Bravo, fresh off a century in the previous Test. Brendon McCullum had employed attacking fields - his ploy of using a silly mid-on almost bore fruit, but Brathwaite's lazy drive had fallen short. He worked the same principle against Edwards, whose strokeplay was characterised by hard hands, by having two short covers. He made the right moves and after the break his bowlers responded better. Craig went around the wicket to generate some good bounce, Neil Wagner was persistent. Contest had been imbued back into the game, but it was not allowed to unfurl as what began as a faint drizzle kept gaining strength.

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Persistent showers force abandonment

Indians 333 for 4 (Dhawan 60*, Pujara 57, Gambhir 54) v Leicestershire
Scorecard

Showers that began the previous night and persisted through Friday morning and afternoon ended any chance of play on the second day of the Indians' warm-up match against Leicestershire. The umpires were meant to carry out an inspection at half past two in the afternoon, but their decision was made easier by the rain, which came down strongly, having stopped for an hour-long interval around lunch.

The covers had not been removed from overnight with the incessant drizzle dampening one of the largest outfields in cricket while causing large puddles to form across the covers that the groundstaff worked hard to clear but in vain. Incidentally the BCCI twitter even tweeted a premature message an hour before lunch: "Second day's play of the warm-up between Leicestershire and Indians has been called off due to rain."

Having managed quality batting time the Indians did not seem overly bothered. The visitors came to the ground at noon before heading to the indoor nets where they trained under the watchful eye of their coach Duncan Fletcher.

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WICB discusses Guyana cricket bill with government

The WICB has met with representatives of the Guyana government to discuss its concerns with the Guyana Cricket Administration Bill that was passed by the national assembly in May. Following meetings on June 23 and 24, the WICB issued a statement saying that all parties involved agreed there were issues with the bill that needed to be redressed.

The WICB will now prepare a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) which identifies areas of the bill that need to be revised, what the revisions should be, and a timeline for implementation of the revisions. The MoA will be signed by the WICB, the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and the government of Guyana.

The bill paves the way for new GCB elections, bringing an end to the longstanding impasse between the board and the government; the issue dates back to the contentious elections in July 2011, when Ramsey Ali was elected president. The elections were boycotted by some of the board's constituent members, one of which, the Berbice Cricket Board, took the GCB to court, claiming the new administration was not properly established. The Chief Justice had recommended then that "there may be immediate need for the minister responsible for sports to impose his executive will in the national interest".

Following that ruling, Guyana's sports minister Dr Frank Anthony appointed an Interim Management Committee (IMC), headed by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, to run cricket in Guyana. The WICB, however, refused to acknowledge the IMC, in keeping with the ICC's stance against government intervention in cricket administration, and said the only authority it would recognise was the GCB.

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Two-in-two puts Sussex in the mix

Sussex 110 for 4 (Nash 74*) beat Middlesex 107 (Beer 3-22, Hatchett 3-23) by six wickets
Scorecard

In the ultra-competitive South Group a couple of wins can make a big difference. Before they travelled to Canterbury last week, Sussex, finalists as recently as 2012, had won three of their previous 18 games. They have now won two in a row and have gone from second-bottom in the section and up to fourth place and the last quarter-final spot.

A six-wicket win achieved with 23 balls to spare over a Middlesex side who remain bottom and with little chance of the knockout stages will not necessarily get their supporters rushing to the bookies to back Sussex for glory at Edgbaston in August.

They are likely to be without Matt Prior, Chris Jordan and Mike Yardy for most of the qualifying stage and their best batsman in the format so far, skipper Ed Joyce, rested a hamstring.

But successive wins is a step forward after five successive defeats and there was much to commend in Sussex's performance. They took 10 wickets, just as they had against Kent last week, fielded well and then one of their openers, in this instance Chris Nash, anchored the reply.

Nash, leading the side in Joyce's absence, made 74 off 53 balls with five fours and three sixes, the last of them a straight hit off James Harris to seal victory at the start of the 18th over.

His clean ball-striking and adroit placement against the spinners certainly put Middlesex's dismal batting in perspective. Although Ryan Higgins' promising innings of 31 was ended by a ball from James Anyon which scuttled through, too many of their batsmen played injudicious shots.

Hove groundsman Andy Mackay felt it was a 160-180 pitch and Middlesex would have batted first had they won the toss. There was certainly some pace and carry for the quicker bowlers as Eoin Morgan discovered when he touched a lifter from Anyon which wicketkeeper Ben Brown held above his head.

There was turn too with Will Beer's first ball bowling Dawid Malan out of the rough. The legspinner picked up 3 for 22 and when Hatchett returned at the end to pick up two more scalps the left-arm seamer had competition best figures of 3 for 23.

Sussex lost their talisman Luke Wright early in the reply, lbw on the walk to Harris, and a promising start by Harry Finch was ended by a direct hit from cover by Higgins after a mix-up with Nash. But Rory Hamilton-Brown played sensibly in support of his captain and it was still daylight when Nash struck the winning blow.

Was it a good T20 wicket? That is debatable, but a crowd of more than 5,000 enjoyed themselves, particularly the hundreds of youngsters allowed extra time by the early finish to enjoy their own games when the flooded onto the outfield.

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Poor pitches killing English T20

More than match-fixing, chucking or the absence of cricket from free-to-air television, poor pitches will destroy cricket and turn away spectators from the English game

"Take me to Lord's to see someone I've never heard of, nurdle someone else I've never heard of off their legs for a single," is an expression no child has ever uttered.

The NatWest T20 Blast is not for the purist. It is not about subtlety. It is not, really, even about winning. It is about attracting new spectators to the game. It was re-launched only a few weeks ago to double - yes, double - attendances over the next three or four years.

So it is essential it contains the biggest names, boundary hitting and fast bowling to appeal to those who are left untouched by longer forms of the game. It is essential it provides fast-moving, attractive, entertainment.

So it was a shame that, on the day it became clear that the ECB were not going to honour their commitment to back the re-launched competition by making England players available, that the pitch at Lord's for Middlesex's match against Gloucestershire should provide so little chance of entertainment to a crowd of 14,000.

Dry, cracked and uneven, it provided too much assistance for the bowlers and produced cagey cricket lacking the big hitting or eye-catching bowling that could sell the game to a new audience. It was like going to watch The Rolling Stones play their greatest hits and instead find them experimenting with an evening of Belgian jazz.

Matches like this present a chance to appeal to a new audience; a chance to inspire new supporters and new players. With very little cricket available on free-to-air TV, it is the shop window for our game.

But, all too often, the English game is self-harming with this sort of surface. A surface lacking the pace and bounce to encourage attractive cricket. A surface encouraging canny medium-pacers and dart-like spinners. A surface that creates boring cricket.

All too often, new spectators will taste the game once and never return.

And it may well get worse. Pitches for the 50-over competition later in the season may well be even more tired and dry. They will offer even more wretched entertainment. They will damage cricket even more.

It is not entirely the groundsmen's fault. They are obliged to prepare so many pitches during the course of a season that they simply run out of space. They have no choice but to re-use wickets, particularly when the requirements of broadcasters insist that games are played towards the centre of the square.

The new drainage installed at grounds around the country might be relevant, too. There is increasing evidence to suggest that groundsmen are simply unable to retain moisture in pitches and, as a consequence, there is a lack of pace and more assistance to spin than might be required. It is a factor that might become increasingly relevant in the Investec Test series against India.

In the longer-term the ECB are likely to consider centrally-contracted groundsmen. Then they can demand pitches for the benefit of the national game as a whole, not just the home county. But the ECB will also have to fund groundsmen adequately to ensure they have the required resources. This is too important an area of the game to skimp.

Pitches like this will kill the game. More than match-fixing, chucking or the absence of cricket from free-to-air television, poor pitches will destroy the product and turn away spectators. The game has to do better and for Lord's, the home of cricket, to provide such a surface for such an encounter, is bitterly disappointing.

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England prescribe rest to jaded squad

England have decided that rest will be the best cure for the team that slipped to their first series defeat on home soil against Sri Lanka. 10 of the 11 that played in the series are to miss the next round of County Championship games starting on Sunday, as well as NatWest T20 Blast games that precede them.

There is an irony in the only exception to the decision. Moeen Ali, who batted throughout the final day to take England within two balls of saving the Test and the series, will play in Worcestershire's Championship match against Glamorgan. While there will be few concerns about his batting, the England selectors will be keen to see him gain some more bowling time with the red ball after Moeen admitted in Leeds that he felt more confident delivering his doosra with the white ball.

Chris Woakes, who was also in the England squad for the Sri Lanka series but did not play, is free to play both in Warwickshire's T20 and Championship side.

All those not involved in matches will attend a two-day training camp in Loughborough, with the England squad for the first Test of the Investec series against India to be named in the middle of the week.

While the decision to rest the seam bowlers, in particular, is not a surprise, the decision to rest wicketkeeper Matt Prior is more perplexing. Prior endured a poor game with the gloves at Headingley and, having struggled with injury in the early stages of the season, had only kept in one first-class game before the Test series. As well as dropping a couple of chances, Prior also conceded 31 byes in the two-Test series.

England's inconsistent performance against Sri Lanka might have convinced the team management that the players required more time in the middle. But, perhaps with one eye to the future schedule - the entire five-Test series against India takes place in a six-week window - it has instead been concluded that rest may be of more benefit.

It was alarming to note how jaded some England players appeared towards the end of the second Test. James Anderson, despite an otherwise exemplary series, experienced one of his worst days in several years on the fourth day at Headingley, while Stuart Broad has a long-standing knee problem that limited him to two first-class games ahead of the series and appeared to be hampering him at times during it. Chris Jordan, so impressive in the limited-overs series and in early-season for Sussex, also appeared to have lost just a bit of nip.

It was also noticeable that those men - Joe Root and Prior, in particular - exposed to the pace and hostility of Mitchell Johnson in Australia seemed least able to cope with the pace of the Sri Lankan seamer Dhammika Prasad. England's problems may well stem more from feeling mentally jaded than physically.

Indeed, in years to come, the burn out of Jonathan Trott, the premature retirement of Graeme Swann, even the struggles of Alastair Cook and Steven Finn, may be seen as a reflection of a schedule that simply asks too much - physically but most of all mentally - of the best players. Nearly 300 days a year in hotels and, just as importantly, in the somewhat intense England environment, does little to retain the joy and freshness that is required to excel at the top level in sport.

Perhaps it is more surprising that the players have been withdrawn from Friday night's T20 programme. Not only might the relative freedom of a white-ball innings have freed up the likes of Cook to recover some form but, only a few weeks ago, the ECB re-launched the competition with assurances that England players would be made available more often. Even with the county game fighting for relevance and financial viability, it seems it will receive little help from the England camp.

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Bopara 'empty' at Test non-selection

Ravi Bopara admitted he woke up feeling empty the day after England's ODI series against Sri Lanka finished.

While Bopara still cherishes playing for Essex, he has tasted life on the bigger stage and knows that little else compares to the thrill of representing England. Waking in his hotel room the day after the ODI series ended knowing that he wouldn't be required for the Investec Test series against Sri Lanka was, he says, "a huge anti-climax".

"A lot of the other lads were going off to prepare for the Test series," Bopara told ESPNcricinfo. "They were excited. They were talking about it. They still had a buzz. And I wasn't involved. I woke up feeling this hole inside me knowing that England was over for me for a bit and I was going back to county cricket. It's really hard to accept.

"Look, I love playing for Essex. I really do. But there's nothing like playing for England. It's the ultimate. And once you've experienced it, it's very hard to accept anything less."

But Bopara accepts that his Test form has not been adequate to warrant his continued selection. While there were, as he puts it, "glimpses" of what he can do, an average of 31.94 after 13 Tests is modest for one so talented.

"I feel frustrated," he says. "I've not been able to show my full potential to a wider audience. I was doing OK, but then the Ashes of 2009 didn't go well for me and I haven't got back in for any length of time.

"I've shown glimpses. But I know I haven't done myself justice and I really want to do it. I mean, I really want it. I want to play innings people remember. I know I can do that and I would love another opportunity. But there's no point hoping or moaning. I've got to make sure I do it by scoring heavily in county cricket and making it impossible for them not to pick me."

Such passion may seem at odds with the image of Bopara as laid-back to the point of being comatose. But whatever he used to be like, he feels the experience of spending time with successful people from outside the world of cricket has given him greater perspective and better tools for coping with the stresses and strains of life.

"I've been disorganised in the past," he says. "That's true. But it is the past. I'm working harder than ever now. I did feel, for a while, as if I lost all my energy. But I've rediscovered that. I'm honestly more determined and focused than ever.

"I was very lucky to spend some time with some successful people outside cricket," he says. "I don't want to say who they were, but I'm talking about business people. It wasn't organised by Essex or the ECB. It just happened, really, and it's lucky that it did.

"They showed me the habits and characteristics successful people need to have. They showed me how organised you have to be and how calm they were under pressure. They were so determined and so positive and the whole experience made me a better cricketer and a better, more honourable man. Why? Because now, if I say I'm going to do something, I do it. I've learned a lot."

	"The experience made me a better cricketer and a better, more honourable man. Now, if I say I'm going to do something, I do it."

Bopara's last experience with the Test team ended after the first Test of the series against South Africa in 2012 when, for personal reasons, he felt a need to take a break from cricket.

"Being a cricketer is not like a normal job," he says. "If you work in an office you might leave home early in the morning and be back late at night, I know. But we go away for months at a time and that can cause a lot of problems. The schedule isn't conducive to normal family life. If there's something going on that needs sorting at home, well you've got to go and sort it."

But no-one should mistake Bopara's decision as a demonstration of any lack of commitment. "It's not exactly that I put cricket before anything else, it's just that it is who I am," he says. "Cricket makes me who I am. It's more than what I do; it's what I am. So it is number one for me. Family is more important, of course, but I wouldn't be me if I wasn't a cricketer. It's a non-negotiable part of my life. I have to put it first."

As one of the few men in the England set-up who developed as a player solely in the UK and without the help of the private school system, Bopara might also have a role in inspiring the next generation of young players into the game.

"There is so much talent out there," he says at a Chance to Shine event in Birmingham. "And there is so much love for the game. I was lucky in that my mum and dad played a massive part in my development. They took me to games, they encouraged me to train. They did whatever needed doing and I wouldn't have made it without them. Parents are the key.

"But role-models have a huge part to play, too. There has been a bit of a shortage of players from West Indian circles in the English game in recent years, so it's great to see Chris Jordan coming through. He is going to be a big star and hopefully he can encourage a lot more kids to play the game.

"Can I do that, too? I'd like to. I really would. I'm seeing a lot more kids from ethnic backgrounds in the grounds and if I can inspire one or two to take up the game, well, that would be brilliant."

Chance to Shine ambassador Ravi Bopara was visiting Bishop Challoner Catholic College for Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week. Thousands of Chance to Shine schools all over the country enjoyed cricket-themed activities in the classroom and the playground. Visit www.chancetoshine.org to find out more and donate.

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Podmore takes chance amid Middlesex struggle

Gloucestershire 105 for 6 (Howell 39, Podmore 3-13) v Middlesex match abandoned
Scorecard

Middlesex were meant to embody the brave new world of this season's NatWest Blast. They began the season with an innovative double-header and a new captain perfectly suited to the format in Eoin Morgan. It seemed like an intoxicating mix.

It hasn't worked out like that. Two defeats in a day at Lord's was not the start anyone envisaged - and Morgan promptly branded the concept of back-to-back games "unfeasible". Five defeats followed in their next six matches.

On a gloomy and ultimately rain-ruined evening at Lord's the prospect of a T20 game against Gloucestershire - pitting the bottom two sides in the South Division against each other - was not the most enticing prospect, even before factoring in the competing attractions of the football World Cup and Wimbledon tennis.

In the circumstances, that 14,000 still attended was heartening. They might have felt they deserved rather better than an anaemic pitch rendering timing the ball almost impossible. Gloucestershire managed only five boundaries in 20 turgid overs, a sight that will have done little to encourage the crowd to return.

Still, Harry Podmore would not have been complaining. Middlesex's miserable T20 season, allied to their impressive start in the Championship, has led to them resting their big fast-bowling feasts from T20. Steven Finn and Toby Roland-Jones both played today, but for Middlesex second XI against Surrey at Radlett rather than for the first team at Lord's.

Yet Middlesex's T20 despair has also created opportunities. The 19-year-old Podmore has seized his. He bowls full and straight and is evidently not easily fazed. As Adam Rouse moved around the crease in Gloucestershire's final over, in a desperate attempt to wake the innings up from its slumber, Podmore's focus was unwavering, and he decimated Rouse's stumps. In his first two professional matches - both televised T20s - Podmore has now taken five wickets for only 33 runs.

James Harris has had difficulties in this season's T20 Blast, going at over 8.5 runs an over but, from the moment Alex Gidman was caught off a top edge in the deep in the game's opening over, this had the feel of being a better day. As Gloucestershire stumbled to 19 for 3 off their Powerplay, it became apparent that consistent bowling on a length, the sort that batsmen relish on quicker pitches, would be sufficient to choke the innings. Benny Howell top scored with 39, including the only six of the innings, but it took 48 balls. At least Will Gidman attempted innovation to end the stasis, reverse-sweeping Ravi Patel for four and deploying the scoop against Harris.

Yet so turgid was the pitch that it is hard to imagine even the staunchest home supporter being particularly aggrieved that rain deprived Middlesex of the chance to chase down 106, even if an innings from Morgan would have shed more light on the pitch. A no result effectively confirms the premature exits of both sides though Middlesex have been anticipating such a result since their ill-fated Saturday five weeks ago.

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Northants fight a crumb for Peters

Northamptonshire180 (Chapple 5-51, Smith 4-26) and 231 for 8 (Smith 3-56) trail Lancashire 650 for 6 dec by 239 runs
Scorecard

Stephen Peters is a proud man. Quite pardonably unwilling to offer his views on the second evening of this game, after his side had been hammered to the distant shore of oblivion, the Northamptonshire skipper surely hoped against probability that the rest of the Division One contest would offer him some encouragement as he prepares for the second half of the County Championship season.

To a limited degree Peters' hopes were realised. True, Lancashire need just two wickets to complete a heavy innings victory, but many of Northamptonshire's batsmen fought as hard as they were able on the third day and they will begin the final morning on 231 for 8. Perhaps they therefore deserved the bad light which prevented Lancashire claiming the final half-hour.

No one exemplified the visitors' spirit of defiance against overwhelming odds more clearly than Andrew Hall, who followed his unbeaten 42 in the first innings with 36 not out in the second. Hall has now faced 200 balls in this match and if Peters' men are to get through the rest of this summer without suffering too many psychological scars, they will need to follow the South African's example. "This morning our objective was to get through today and bring everyone back tomorrow," Peters said. "We've managed to do that and we have to take small crumbs of comfort where we can at the moment."

Indeed, the morning had not begun too badly for Peters. His last three wickets added 67 runs, and then he and James Middlebrook had put on 39 more in fairly unruffled fashion before lunch. The follow-on, of course, had been taken for granted. Lancashire had a 470-run first-innings lead, the third-highest in their history, and Glen Chapple had only bowled 11 balls in the morning session. Saving the game would probably take Northants more than five sessions, ie. the rest of the match.

For Peters and his men, though, relief drops slow and slight this benighted summer. Fifteen minutes after the resumption Nigel Cowley gave the Northants captain out lbw for 41 when Tom Smith brought one back off the seam. Peters stood long and hard at the crease, perhaps considering the vicissitudes visited upon good men. More likely, he may have been disappointed with the decision. No matter; he had to trudge off.

An hour later Northants were 111 for 4 and the cream of their top order had departed in uncontroversial fashion: Richard Levi edging Smith to Paul Horton, Middlebrook nicking Kyle Hogg to Jos Buttler two balls later and Rob Newton losing his off stump when he failed to jab down on a Wayne White delivery.

Rain and bad light then trimmed 15 overs off the day's allocation but the elements did nothing to change the direction of the contest. In the 26 overs remaining to them Lancashire's attack grabbed four more wickets, two of them falling to Simon Kerrigan, who had Matt Spriegel lbw for 29 before having Ben Duckett caught by silly point, Alex Davies, the ball lobbing up off bat and pad. Only David Willey exhibited any impatience, the left-hander whacking his second ball from Kerrigan for six before miscuing Smith to Chapple at mid-on next over.

At such a juncture in the match and with little rain forecast, many sides might have settled for a cheery thrash, an early journey home and a night in their own beds. But, whatever their other problems, the Northants players are made of tougher stuff. Steven Crook joined Hall and frustrated his former side by making 36 and adding exactly 50 for the eighth wicket before, to his evident disappointment, he pulled the first ball of White's spell straight to Usman Khawaja at deep-backward square leg.

Graeme White also followed the line of most resistance and was undefeated on 5 when the light closed in. Lancashire's players will no doubt take great comfort from the imminence of victory, few more so than Smith, whose seven wickets in this match takes his total in Division One to 40 this summer.

Chapple, too, can be happy with matters. Lancashire's captain has bowled with real fire in this game and few things were more heartening for home supporters than to see him running in under full sail from the Pavilion End, still dead keen for his beloved Lancy, still crazy after all these years.

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'I never quit on anything' - Cook

Alastair Cook has insisted he has no intention of resigning the England captaincy despite his side slipping to the first home series defeat in their history against Sri Lanka.

Under Cook's captaincy, England are now without a win in eight successive Tests - six of which they have lost - which is their worst run since 1996-97. They have also dropped two places to fifth in the Test rankings.

Cook's own batting form is also causing concern. Since the start of the 2013 Ashes series, he has played 12 Tests and batted 24 times without making a century. In that period he has averaged just 25.04.

But, asked about his position after England slipped to a 100-run defeat against Sri Lanka at Headingley, Cook was adamant that, unless the ECB decide to sack him, he will not step down.

"I've never quit on anything I've done," Cook said. "I've given it my all, all the time. Every 104 games I've played for England, I've left everything out there

"It's the same situation here. Until that moment somebody tells me they don't want me to be captain, I'll still be here. I'm incredibly proud to be England captain. I've been selected to do it.

"If someone decides I'm not the right person for the job and the results don't justify me doing it, then fine. But until that moment, I'm desperate to try to turn English cricket around."

Cook conceded, however, that his batting form was a concern and accepted that the pressure on him to justify his place in the side was mounting.

"No one's guaranteed a place in this England team," he said. "You've seen with the young players around now, they're pushing for places. That's the way it should always be.

"When you're not batting well, you start to look at a few things technically. I'm sure there's something not quite right there I can work on.

"With runs at the moment hard to come by, it does put more pressure on me. I think I've got to go back to what I've done in the past. Bowlers do get tired. I've got to be so strong mentally and let them come to my areas, I believe. But it comes down to being mentally strong at the crease. I've done it in the past. I've just got to drag that mental strength out again.

"It's an incredibly tough challenge, a tough job, there's no doubt about it, especially opening the batting."

While Cook accepted that aspects of England's play in this game - especially their batting and bowling on the fourth day - had fallen well below standard, he did find some encouragement in the performances of some of the younger players. During the match both Sam Robson and Moeen Ali hit their maiden Test hundreds.

"I don't think you can fault any of the guys with the way they've played on the final day," he said. "We lost this Test match with a really bad day yesterday. We had one of our worst days, with both bat and ball, and lost this game because of it.

"Obviously, as a captain, you are responsible. We didn't bowl very well. It wasn't for lack of trying. We knew we had to bowl that fuller length. We knew what we were trying to do, but we just didn't get it right.

"If you look at the whole series, I think we probably had the better of eight, maybe seven, of the 10 days.

"With the fifth ball of the last day of the first Test, it was taken away from us and with the fifth ball of the last over, we've lost this Test match.

"It doesn't change the fact we've lost the series. But I think it would be wrong to look at it as such a negative series, just because we lost it.

"We've seen some amazing things from some young players who've come in, and announced themselves in international cricket. It was an incredible effort on the final day, with Moeen's hundred. To play like he played, for a free-flowing batsman to be so controlled, measured and calm under that pressure can only bode well for the future.

"But we can't look past the fact that, in this game, we were 300 for 3, with a lead of 60, and we haven't been able to nail Sri Lanka down. We should have got more than 360. We needed 450, 500 on that wicket. That's what's cost us."

It was noticeable on the final day that several of England's batsmen, notably Matt Prior and Joe Root, struggled against the short ball. But while Cook admitted that a hangover from Australia, and the beating that England took at the hands of Mitchell Johnson in particular, might still be affecting some players, he took comfort in the obvious pain that defeat caused his players, suggesting it showed the passion that remained within his side. James Anderson, who battled for more than 20 overs as part of the tenth-wicket stand with Moeen, was in tears at the post-match ceremony.

"Probably what happened over the winter is still there, getting hammered in Australia," Cook said. "There is that lasting effect, even with a different side. It's still the England side.

"But you saw Jimmy, right at the end. I think that just shows to everybody who doesn't really know us as blokes what it means to us to play for England.

"You sometimes get accused of not caring that much, especially when things don't go that well. But that was the raw emotion to a guy who has put everything into 83 minutes of batting. If it was 84, we'd be sitting here with a smile on our faces."

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