Morgan: England must learn fast

England must learn quickly how to compete with the best on good pitches - if they are to avoid treading water in one-day international cricket.

The ongoing NatWest Series has already seen England close to their best, in a wide-margin victory at The Oval, and then apparently regressing to a 69-run defeat at Headingley yesterday.
Lord's beckons tomorrow, with England and Sri Lanka 1-1 and three to play, and the prospect of fine weather and a run-laden surface is not necessarily good news for the hosts.
Under cloud cover and between long rain breaks at The Oval, they out-batted and bowled the tourists. But when the sun shone in Leeds, there was a Colombo-like gulf in favour of Sri Lanka.
World Twenty20 champions England have occasionally fared well abroad in the shorter formats.
But they acknowledge the challenge of achieving much greater consistency when venues serve up a level playing field.
Number five batsman Eoin Morgan, who has proved himself adept in most conditions, said: "We struggled in the World Cup on flat wickets, particularly in being that extra-bit positive with the bat.
"In effect it [yesterday's defeat] was a small step back towards where we were.
"Realising that is half the process of learning from it.
"We have been here before and we need to learn from it, and do something about it quickly. Otherwise we could run into problems."
Mahela Jayawardene's career-best 144 in Sri Lanka's 309 for five was the most telling difference at Headingley.