Nasser Hussain felt his side had improved their performance during the seven-wicket defeat by Australia in the first game of the VB Series in Sydney after their displays during the three warm-up defeats.

"We played some better cricket today," said the England captain. "It's pleasing to see the boys go out there and put on a show in front of a big crowd. The three games before I thought we were below par but today the big crowd and the big occasion lifted us a little, bit but it wasn't enough.

"The last 10 overs of our batting and their first 15 probably made the difference in the end, but we were a little bit better."

Hussain hopes that Nick Knight, who was unable to field during Australia's reply having been struck by cramp towards the end of his century innings, will be fit for England's second game of the triangular series against Australia in Melbourne on Sunday.

"Nick was struggling with cramping all over the body and not just in one specific area, and the combination of that with new batters trying to get used to the pace of the wicket kept us down to 20 or 30 less than we should have got," added Hussain.

"When we went out to field he was shivering a little bit which tends to suggest dehydration, but he's OK and we just have to get him right for Sunday now. He's a fit lad but it was hot out there today and there were lots of ones or twos because of the nature of the wicket.

"We are really going to have to work out some better plans for the first 15 overs. Hayden and Gilchrist did exceptionally well and you can't let a side get away. The Sri Lankans will be exactly the same, they will come at you and for those first 15 overs, we are going to have to rethink our plans."

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting praised his players for battling back into the the game to beat England comfortably by seven wickets after a slow start.

"We were probably a bit disappointed that England made as many as they did," Ponting reflected. "They batted well at the start of their innings, our bowlers clawed it back through the middle and then our batsmen went out and did a fantastic job and reeled in the runs."

England's total under lights of 251 for eight from their 50 overs soon looked inadequate as Australian openers Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden rattled off a century stand before the first wicket fell for 101 after 13.5 overs. Man-of-the-Match Hayden was dismissed just two runs short of his century.

"The way that we came out today was terrific," Hayden enthused. "We really wanted to chase runs and were off to a flying start. Then it was a terrific innings by Damien Martyn in difficult conditions. I guess we are at a stage with our batting where we are showing good experience throughout the innings."

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