Strauss - We had to go for it - Sport in brief

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Centurions Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson combined in a record 252-run partnership to seal a crushing nine-wicket win under the Centurion floodlights. However, the match was only taken as far as the 42nd over of the chase thanks to a career-best 80 from Tim Bresnan and Luke Wright's 48.

"We were definitely keen to go out there and play our shots on a very good wicket and unfortunately it didn't come off," said Strauss. "You live by the sword and you die by the sword."

He added: "It's frustrating. When you lose six wickets for 100 runs on that kind of surface you are always struggling.

"We have to keep playing our shots, it's refreshing to see the guys going out there and expressing themselves but we have to work on our skills to improve our percentages.

"Tim Bresnan played exceptionally well and was well supported by Luke Wright.

"We weren't completely out of the game at the halfway mark but it was a 300-par wicket and we were still quite light which meant we needed three or four wickets with the new ball, which we weren't able to get."

When Graham Onions prised out Tim Paine in the second over, following a 15-minute delay caused by an invasion of flying ants, it appeared to be the perfect start.

But Ponting struck his 28th one-day international hundred and became the first Australian to pass 12,000 runs at this level.

"You always hope under lights it might misbehave a little bit and there's always pressure chasing but Ponting and Watson played exceptionally well," Strauss added.