Under-fire Cook apologises for Lord's go-slow

In-form England opener Alastair Cook has apologised for scoring too slowly when his side wanted quick declaration runs in the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord's.

The 26-year-old has enjoyed a prolific run of scores, with six hundreds in his last 12 Test innings. But he came under fire for managing just 26 in the final day's morning session at Lord's as England set off in what was always set to be an unlikely victory in a match that ended as a draw.

Cook, who scored 96 and 106 in two innings at Lord's, told The Sun: "In the last 30 to 45 minutes of that session, I probably did get the tempo wrong if you look at the number of runs I scored.

"The team scored 111 runs in the two hours which was roughly what we were looking for. But I was late to react to the need to score quickly.

"Luckily, Kevin Pietersen scored some runs. I didn't react quickly enough and I must learn from that," added Cook, recently appointed England's one-day captain despite not being selected for the World Cup.

England, 1-0 up after an innings victory in the Cardiff opener, will look to press home their advantage in the third and final Test against Sri Lanka starting at the Rose Bowl tomorrow.