Cook finds recipe for success

Alastair Cook completed his first assignment as England captain with a NatWest Series victory over Sri Lanka at Old Trafford.

The 26-year-old successor to Andrew Strauss therefore came through an examination of his mettle as both batsman and leader in one-day international cricket.

The doubters appeared to be everywhere when Cook's era began at The Oval at the end of last month, questioning his ability to bat at the right tempo for 50 overs and by implication his right to a place in his own team.

But 298 runs later - average 74.50, strike rate 96.75 - he could be forgiven a smile of satisfaction as he reflected on a series win over Sri Lanka, the team who knocked England out of this year's World Cup in a 10-wicket trouncing in Colombo.

The margin of success was less emphatic on Saturday, the hosts sneaking this decider by 16 runs after a curious match in which wickets fell in dramatic clusters but in the end England's 268 for nine proved defendable.

Cook remained calm throughout, and after Jade Dernbach had taken Sri Lanka's last two wickets in successive balls at the start of the 49th over, he said: "Once we got through that powerplay and they still needed seven-and-a-half an over and we had five overs of spin, I was quite confident.

"But we still needed to get (Angelo) Mathews out without him really doing the damage."

Mathews (62) was ninth out, Tim Bresnan taking the catch off a Dernbach slower ball to add to his own three for 49 at the top of the order in a contest set up for England by Cook and Craig Kieswetter's hectic opening partnership and then half-centuries from Jonathan Trott (72) and Eoin Morgan (57).

Sri Lanka fought back via Dinesh Chandimal (54), Kumar Sangakkara, Mathews and Jeevan Mendis - but ultimately not quite well enough.

As for the points Cook has proven to his critics, he said: "When you pull on an England shirt, people are always going to have their own opinions.

"I don't do it to prove anyone wrong. I do it for the satisfaction that we got in that final half-hour of the game, and you can't replicate that. That's why you play the game.

"That's the first time I've had a really tight scenario in my eight games as one-day captain, and I thought we handled it well.

"I think the most pleasing aspect is the way we fought back from 2-1 down in the series.

"Everyone was writing us off, and we've played well in these past two games in all conditions on spinning wickets and flat wickets."

England caused a stir before start of play when they dropped their Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad, to make way for slow-bowling all-rounder Samit Patel.

Cook explained it was a decision taken partly because of conditions in Manchester, but hinted Broad's moderate run of form had played its part too.

"We wanted to play two spinners," he said.

"We picked Jade ahead of Broady, and that's why we changed it.

"It doesn't mean that Broady won't come back in. It's obviously a tough pill for him to swallow, but his record in one-day cricket is outstanding.

"Just because he hasn't taken the wickets he would have liked doesn't mean he won't be back."

Patel and especially Dernbach proved Cook right.

The captain said of the latter: "He has bowled really well at the death, and one of the main reasons he's been brought into that side is because of the skills he has - and you saw it at the end there, a slower ball followed by a yorker.

"We need everyone to be able to do that. Jade's very good at that - so that's why he's in the side.

"He's bowled very well in pressure situations and in powerplays."

England had appeared to be batting Sri Lanka out of contention at one stage, only to lose six wickets for 40 runs.

Cook was nonetheless content with their total - particularly after Dernbach and James Anderson eked out what turned out to be a crucial, unbroken 15 for the last wicket.

"We'd definitely have taken that total this morning," he said.

"From the position we got ourselves into, 210 for three, we would have liked 280 or 290.

"Credit the way they bowled, but we probably could have killed the game off there and then.

"We are being critical because 270 on that wicket was a very good score, and that little partnership at the end got us there."

Cook's opposite number Tillakaratne Dilshan was left to reflect on a tour in which narrow margins - 3-2 in this series and 1-0 after three Tests - went against his team.

"We lost the Test series in one hour and again in this one-day series lost three matches in about the first six overs of our batting," he said.

"I think we can be a much better side than that."