Captain Andrew Strauss urged his batsmen to wise up after another failure to knock off a modest target.

England go 2-0 down to Australia in the NatWest Series.

England were progressing promisingly on 74 without loss, in pursuit of 250 at Lord's, only to slump spectacularly to 97 for four on their way to a 39-run loss.

"Everyone has got a start"

It followed a last-ball defeat at the Oval last Friday evening, with the top order once again culpable.

"At 70-odd for nought we were in a good position to come home quite comfortably but to a certain extent we were the architects of our own downfall," said Strauss. "Four reasonably soft wickets in a short space of time meant we were suddenly in a situation where you are asking bowlers to score runs for you.

"Everyone has got a start in the two games but has not gone on. I don't think it's a lack of confidence, just that we haven't been smart enough in what our percentage shots are.

"I firmly believe your top six has to score the bulk of your runs and we have not done that.

"We have been in the game at the halfway point and at times in the batting phase we have looked favourites to win both games but all credit to Australia, they kept coming at us, created chances and took wickets."

Such was the demise on Sunday that England could not get two batsmen set to invoke the batting powerplay, which meant it was taken in the 45th over with last man James Anderson at the crease.

Paul Collingwood, who signalled something of a return to form with 56, was last out when he was yorked by Brett Lee, attempting an aggressive stroke.

"We're very happy to be 2-0 up"

In contrast, implementing the powerplay late in the innings had its benefits for Australia, with Mitchell Johnson slamming an unbeaten 43 off just 23 balls, to earn the man-of-the-match award.

"We're very happy to be 2-0 in the series going into the next game, we've got to take each game at a time but we're in a good place," Johnson, who also claimed two wickets, said. "There's a good vibe, with a lot of young guys in our team.

"It was great to get a few runs, and help the team as much as I could. There were a few shots that I tried and some days they come off."

He added: "So far we have won the key moments during these one-dayers. They started off pretty well here and we pulled them back. With the energy around the field, we're winning those keys moments."

The return of Lee has helped in that regard, after injury ruled him out of the Ashes defeat.

"He's bowling very well," said Johnson. "He's bowling very fast, was hitting around 94-mile-per-hour for some, and the ball was starting to reverse.

"He missed out on the Tests but he's looking very good at the moment."

Meanwhile, Lee's 2005 sparring partner Andrew Flintoff has suffered a minor setback from knee surgery with the news he developed deep vein thrombosis in his right calf.

"You don't want any complications after an operation like that," said Strauss. "We just feel for him because he has a lot of rehab ahead of him and you don't want it to be slowed down in any way."

England's two minor injury victims, Stuart Broad (neck) and Joe Denly (knee) will be assessed today, with both expected to be fit for the third match of the series on Wednesday.