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Andrew Strauss offers no excuses after England defeat
Strauss admitted England were "simply not good enough" in Hobart
England captain Andrew Strauss offered no excuses as his side slumped to a 46-run defeat by Australia to go 2-0 down in the seven-match one-day series.
Shaun Marsh's superb century rescued the hosts from 142-8 to 230 all out, a total England rarely looked like chasing as they were skittled for 184.
"It was a very disappointing display, simply not good enough," said Strauss.
"We allowed them to get too many having had them 142-8, then batted poorly. We have got a lot of hard work to do."
With the World Cup less than a month away, Strauss will be concerned by his side's form in the two one-day matches down under so far.
A six-wicket defeat in Melbourne preceded Friday's defeat in Hobart - two losses only compounded by what appears to be a confused team selection.
Clearly looking to test out the twin-spin attack England are expected to employ in the World Cup on the sub-continent, Strauss admitted he was a seamer short in Hobart - a factor that prevented the tourists taking advantage of the fine start they made to the match.
On a seam-friendly pitch, Marsh and tail-ender Doug Bollinger were instead faced with the gentle spin of James Tredwell and Michael Yardy for much of their innings, enabling them to put on 88 for the ninth wicket.
"I was a seamer short today if I'm honest," admitted Strauss. "That meant I had to bowl the spinners at the death. No disrespect to the spinners out there, but this was a pitch on which it was difficult to play seam bowling.
"The World Cup is in the back of our mind, yes, there's no doubt about it. But we've still got to pick the right side for the occasion in this series and we didn't do that today, I have to say.
"Now we've got to look at what went wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again, starting with Sunday's match in Sydney.
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"We've certainly got to bat better than we did today. We needed someone to stick in and get 80-odd and we'd have almost been there but we lost wickets far too regularly and no-one dug in. I don't think we were busy enough at the crease, either."
That would suggest England will consider making team changes for the match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, though they will once again be without lead spinner Graeme Swann who is out for a fortnight with a badly bruised knee.
However, Strauss insisted he had no regrets about the selection of Matt Prior in place of Steve Davies, despite the wicket-keeper falling for a duck at the top of England's innings.
"Matt brings with him a lot of experience and real energy in the field," said Strauss. "He didn't get a score today, but he's an aggressive batsman, too.
"It was a tough call [to drop Steve Davies] but this isn't the end of his England career. It's just that the World Cup has probably come around too early for him in terms of his career."
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