Cook believes England top order batsmen 'back to their best'

London, Apr 9(ANI): England Test opener Alastair Cook believes his team's top order batsmen have finally regained their lost touch after recording their first Test win this year against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

England's top order started 2012 in dreadful form, with Pakistan bundling them out for under 200 four times in six innings as they completed a 3-0 whitewash.

Any expectations from England's top order in Sri Lanka were buried early on the tour, as they made just 193 in the first innings in Galle, eventually going down by 75 runs, and extending their losing sequence to four in a row.

However, Cook, with 94 and 49 not out, was central to England's performance, while Kevin Pietersen took the man-of-the-match honours with a stunning 151 and 42no on day five of the Colombo Test, which they won by eight wickets.

"The bowlers have been outstanding all winter, but the batters haven't got the runs we'd have liked. The Test match was normal service. We batted long periods and gave a chance to our bowlers to rest up," The Daily Mirror quoted Cook, as saying.

A score of 460 in the first innings is what you need to win games. It was a good team effort, but Kevin was outstanding...it was a match-winning effort. All the batsmen struggled to score quickly and he came in and got a 150 at almost a run a ball. That was really the difference between the two sides," he added.

"The top three of me, Straussy and Jonathan Trott is there to give a platform for our stroke players like Kevin, Ian Bell and Matt Prior. We haven't done that on these two tours but in this game we did. It was a good way to end the tour with a win," he said. (ANI)