Cricket: Eoin Morgan calls for England to adapt if they want to win consistently

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 on Friday.

Lord's beckons today, 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 on 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 (Friday's defeat] was a small step back towards where we were. 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.

But spinners Suraj Randiv and Jeevan Mendis also took five wickets for 74 runs as England failed to stay competitive in pursuit of what would have been their highest ever successful chase. Morgan fared best with 52 off 40 balls, before he too fell to Randiv.

"Spin seems to tie us down, so that is something we have to improve - recognising we have to make that improvement as a unit rather than one or two guys going hell for leather," he said. "It has always been a problem for England, particularly in major tournaments. Think of the last few World Cups.

"It is almost a given, really, when you look at county cricket that you won't see any unbelievable players of spin."

The rarity of England's ODI hundreds is a statistic cited by their critics - and new captain Alastair Cook agreed they badly needed one in Leeds.

Morgan sees things differently.

"It is not an inability to score 100s (that is losing games]," he said.

"Over the past year or so, a few of the guys have got hundreds - but 80 off 75 balls will win you games.

"We have had people playing match-winning knocks, and it is not a major problem.It is not a massive thing in one-day cricket that you go out and score a hundred.

"Scoring hundreds is not something I primarily think of, playing one-day cricket."

Morgan has already proved himself a match-winner, as well as a limited-overs centurion, for his adopted country.

He believes his position at number five is ideal, and appears resistant to any suggestion he could be England's "finisher" one spot lower down.

"I batted at six for a while, and it didn't really work out," he said.

"Where I score runs, and win games, is at five. That is where I have spent most of my career.

"My stats at six are terrible.

"I like that familiarity of looking up at the scoreboard with us three down, with a couple of guys still to come. That gives me confidence in the game I play, rather than being cautious or in any way negative.

"Batting at five complements my game. It gives me extra licence."