England captain Andrew Strauss reflected on familiar problems after his side slipped to a third successive NatWest Series defeat against Australia.

A Cameron White hundred propelled Australia to a six-wicket win, secured with nine balls to spare, in the day-night encounter at the Rose Bowl.

Again the England top order faltered, with Strauss’ 63 off 72 balls the best the hosts could muster.

A total of 228 from 50 overs was always a modest total against an in-form Australia.

“It was bit of a case of Groundhog Day if I’m honest,” Strauss said. “The top six batters didn’t perform as we’d like to again, so that’s a bit of an issue we need to address. We bowled pretty well, but we didn’t take all our chances.

“But defending 230 is always difficult on a flat wicket.”

Strauss denied that England were not as motivated for the seven-match ODI series, having won the Ashes. He continued: “Every game in an England shirt is an opportunity to achieve something but we just haven’t played well enough.

“It’s not for the lack of trying, we’ve just had three poor batting performances. The first two were winnable at the halfway mark but we haven’t fired as batsmen. One-day cricket is not a game where you can go into your shell and grind it out, you have to play with enough confidence to put a competitive score on the board.

“That’s something we have to look at and be honest with ourselves about. I’m as culpable as anyone.”

The injured Kevin Pietersen was conspicuous by his absence last night.

Strauss contined: “KP not playing doesn’t help but it gives others a chance and it’s important we make for the loss of him not being here. We haven’t done that well enough so far.

“We have good options in our bowling but need to get runs on board to exploit that. Australia didn’t need to take any risks in their chase.”

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