Twice England's bowlers have restricted the Australians to
reasonable scores and twice the batsmen have lost their way in pursuit.

Andrew Strauss' team appeared to be cruising at 74 without loss, having been set 250 on Sunday, only to lose by 39 runs.

Collingwood, who hit 56 to signal something of a return to form,
admitted the problems at the Oval and most latterly Lord's, were
glaringly obvious.

"We definitely should have won both games," he said. "We can't beat about the bush.

"We didn't take advantage of the position we were in. In both games,
we have bowled pretty well but we must be honest with ourselves. We're
getting ourselves into winning positions and not taking them.

"That's up to the top six batters to put in the performances and at the moment we're not.

"If you could put your finger on why, we'd have done a lot better.

"I wouldn't say all the batters are out of form or anything like
that - we're just making mistakes at crucial times out in the middle."