Graham Thorpe has called for improved batting from England's middle order in the second One-Day International against Sri Lanka at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Stand-in skipper Thorpe, who was left stranded on 62 not out during England's defeat in the opening match of the series, has urged his batsmen to think more about their game and to concentrate on building partnerships.

England were dismissed for a modest 143 and Thorpe said: "Another 40 or 50 runs, and we would have made a competitive score.

"The bowlers came in hard and gave it everything, but we needed a little more thought in the way we go about constructing a score.

"We lost a couple of wickets, and the pitch was always going to get harder to play on. To be bowled out for a score as low as 143 in a one-day game is not good enough.

"We need to pick ourselves up and show an improvement in our batting because it wouldn't have taken a lot to get an extra 40 runs out there. The guys have the ability, that's not in question. It just takes a little more thought process in how to do it."

Their opponents showed them how to go about their task. Russel Arnold and Marvan Atapattu came together with Sri Lanka on a precarious 58 for four but they calmly set about repairing the innings, adding a match-winning 70 runs.

Thorpe said: "We only had to build one partnership, and the pressure would have shifted to the opposition.

"I don't think it's panic, but it's a case of keeping calm in certain situations and just trying to rebuild with partnerships.

"That's where we lost the whole game, and we need more performances from the middle order. I was pleased with the way I played, but you can't just have one bloke hanging in there.

"But I don't want the guys to get too down about it - people make mistakes. It's important we learn quickly from them because coming back from 1-0 down is going to be tough, just like it was in the Test series."

England will decide on their starting line-up for the day-night game after training tonight.

England (from): ME Trescothick, AJ Stewart (wkt), GA Hick, GP Thorpe (captain), A Flintoff, NV Knight, C White, AF Giles, RDB Croft, AR Caddick, D Gough, MW Alleyne, AD Mullally, MP Vaughan.

Sri Lanka (from): S Jayasuriya (captain), R Kaluwitharana (wkt), M Atapattu, M Jayawardene, K Sangakkara, R Arnold, K Dharmasena, T Dilshan, C Vaas, M Muralitharan, N Zoysa, A Ganegama, I de Saram, T Samaraweera, L de Silva.

Umpires: BC Cooray & BN Pathirana

3rd Umpire: TH Wijewardene

Match referee: H Singh (Ind)

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