England coach David Lloyd yesterday criticised those he believes were responsible for putting the team in such a perilous position in the first Test.

"We created chances and didn't take them," Lloyd said after the team arrived in Perth yesterday for the second Test which starts on Saturday. "We made basic errors and we must eradicate them."

He acknowledged, too, that when Australia's tail wagged furiously, and England's by contrast drooped dismally.

"Our top six has very similar results to other top sixes around the world, but it is below that that we have problems.

"It irritates me because I want us to be able to score runs all the way down. Instead we have two lower-order batsmen, Dominic Cork and Alan Mullally, out pulling in the space of five balls thinking they were Roy Fredericks."

Had England taken their chances it is likely Australia would not have reached 300. Against this, England's top seven batsmen scored 329 runs between them, with not a single let-off.