Woakes haul in vain as Strauss blasts top order

CAPTAIN Andrew Strauss blamed England's batsmen for their one-day international series defeat against Australia, claiming they 'haven't been smart enough'.

England conceded the series with a 51-run win in Brisbane yesterday, to leave them 4-1 down with two games to play.

In each of their four defeats Strauss's side have been bowled out, with their latest reverse confirmed when they were dismissed for 198 after Chris Woakes's 6-45 – the best figures by an England bowler on foreign soil – had left them chasing an achievable 250.

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Strauss admitted that the batsmen had let the bowlers down and singled out 'soft dismissals' as the root of a concerning problem with the World Cup less than a month away.

"One of the improvements we have made in one-day cricket over the past 12 or 18 months was a lot of our batsmen getting bigger scores more consistently, but we've fallen into bad habits in this series," he said.

"Twenties and thirties and soft dismissals, that's been plaguing us all the way through this series and ultimately that's what has lost us the series.

"Our decision-making has been not very good on these wickets.

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"In one-day cricket you've got to decide when is the right time to attack, who is the right bowler to attack. We just haven't done that well enough. We haven't been smart enough as a batting unit.

"We can't hide away from it, we've got to take it on the chin, accept it and try and remedy it for these last two games and try and get some momentum heading into the World Cup."

Strauss denied that the batsmen's poor form was a result of mental fatigue at the end of a long tour of Australia, which has seen them jetting across the country since October.

"If you are mentally fatigued you probably do make poor decisions but I don't think you can just blame every poor decision on mental fatigue," he added.

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"There's no reason for us to be really fatigued at this stage.

"We've got a lot of cricket ahead of us. We look after ourselves well and if guys are starting to think about that then that's a dangerous place for us to be."

While England's batting problems may be attributed to mental lapses, the concern over their bowlers is physical after injuries to Yorkshire's Ajmal Shahzad and Chris Tremlett.

Shahzad suffered a hamstring injury while bowling and had to bat with a runner, while Tremlett was ruled out before the game due to a slight side strain.

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Both will have scans tomorrow and after front-liners Graeme Swann and Yorkshire's Tim Bresnan flew home early due to injury last week, Strauss said a replacement may be called upon.

"We're beginning to run out of bowlers now," Strauss said. "We will take stock and assess the injury situation this evening. If we need to call someone up we will."

Woakes's record-breaking performance did, however, offer reason for cheer as the 21-year-old confirmed himself as one of England's brightest young talents in just his second one-day international.

The right-armer played down his feat though, saying: "It was just one of those days where the ball just seemed to attract the fielders.

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"It seemed to go in their direction more times than not and fortunately enough for myself I picked up six – on another day you get none.

"It would have made it a lot sweeter if we had kept ourselves in the series though."

For Australia the series win was their first in any format since their tour of New Zealand last March and helped ease some of the disappointment of their Ashes humbling.

"After a pretty tough start to the summer, losing the Ashes series, I think it shows a lot of courage for us to come back and play well in this series and win the series tonight," acting captain Michael Clarke said. "I think it was a great performance by the whole group today.

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"A few of us got starts with the bat and didn't go on which was a little bit disappointing but I think to get 250 on that wicket was a really good effort and then we bowled and fielded well once again."

While steering his side to a long-awaited series win Clarke was again the focus of taunts from his home crowd, after he was booed as he strode to the crease.

The 29-year-old responded by top-scoring with 54 – only the second time he has scored a half-century during England's tour.

"You'd like people to be cheering but you understand why some of them are booing," he said.

"Like I've said, I've had a lot of support over this time.

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"I haven't performed as well as I'd have liked so I don't blame the public for being disappointed with my performances but it was nice to finally contribute and help the boys out tonight and get a win.

"It was a great feeling."

Clarke revealed that the Australian players had all donated their match fees to the victims of the Queensland floods, which decimated Brisbane and the surrounding area earlier this month.

"It was a no-brainer for the boys," he said

"We were all more than happy to do that. Everyone's going to sign a shirt as well and donate that.

"I think cricket in general has raised over $AUS6m.

"There's a lot of people who have been devastated by what has happened. The least we can do is donate a bit of our money."

DISPLAY OF THE DAY

Chris Woakes

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Defeat for England but there was one man to emerge with credit and a little slice of history. Chris Woakes's 6-45 were the best figures by an English bowler on foreign soil in the one-day format and underlined his potential.

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