Win was desperately needed, says Hussain

Nasser Hussain believes England still have plenty of work to do after his side registered the first win of their tour of Australia, beating Sri Lanka by 43 runs in their third match of the VB one-day series.

"I thought we played well for a large part of the game," said the England captain. "We were very poor in the last four overs - to get 270 for five and only get 292 was a disgrace, I wasn't at all amused by that and we had to turn things around when we went out.

"Luckily we had the young bowlers like Anderson and Harmison to turn it around for us. The fielding was a lot better, we showed a lot more enthusiasm, we played some sensible cricket and took our catches.

"It's a relief especially for the lads who have been out here from the start. Some of these lads have only played two or three one-day internationals so they're off and running.

"But for the likes of myself, the coach, Alec Stewart and people like Marcus Trescothick it's been fairly poor really and it was something we felt we had to put right.

"We'll have a couple of beers tonight, we can't afford to go over the top because we have another one-day international in two days time but I think it's important we do have a couple of beers just to enjoy the fact we've won a game and then put that behind us."

Meanwhile Sri Lanka's captain Sanath Jayasuriya could not hide his disappointment after the defeat.

"The fielding was the key and we didn't field that well and missed important catches and that have them 25 to 30 more runs, otherwise it would have been a really tight game," he told Sky Sports.

"Most of the English bowlers I was playing against for the first time and early on they bowled well, bowled straight, with good line and length, putting the ball in the right areas."

Sri Lanka took a bonus point after closing on 249 for six, with Russel Arnold unbeaten on 60, but they never looked like challenging England's total.

"We wanted to win the game," Jayasuriya added. "After Mahela (Jayawardene) got out (for 71 with the score at 176 for five) it made it difficult and I think Russel knew 234 was the bonus point and to get that was the right thing to do."

The Sri Lanka captain is hoping that his team will have learned something from the conditions ahead of Friday's match in Perth.

"Perth is one of the fastest pitches in Australia and I think the batsmen are getting used to these conditions. I think if we can come back in the next two games it will be good."

Sri Lankan coach Dav Whatmore added: "If we're going to catch and field like we did today it's not going to help us - the difference between the two sides was 40-odd runs because we allowed them to get too many."