Jonathan Trott, who top-scored with 45 on a day when seamer Neil Wagner and debutant slow left-armer Bruce Martin shared eight wickets, said: “We put ourselves under pressure with our performance with the bat. I don’t think it’s a lack of effort; we made a conscious effort to start the series really well.”

He added: “We looked at that and thought ‘we’ve always been on the back foot at the start of the series’ and we tried to correct that today — and we didn’t get it right. You can’t get away from the fact.”

Poll

Who will win the Punjab Elections?

BJP 32.86%

AAP 41.43%

INC 25.71%

Submit

View All In Poll

Trott could only scratch his head when asked why familiar failings had resurfaced, saying: “I think the guys have worked really hard in (the tour match defeat in) Queenstown, and here — and it just wasn’t our day. We’ve all felt really good, and you can’t fault the guys’ commitment in the nets to get ready for a big series like this. We (just) didn’t bat very well. I’m sure that was prettyu00a0obvious.”