Steve Smith puzzled by Australia's ODI crisis

Brisbane, January 19: After second consecutive defeat to England in the five-match one-day series, Australia captain Steve Smith said the solution to the team's ongoing debacle was beyond him.

"I don't know the answer to that - I wish I did," Smith said.

"I think in probably the last 10 games we've actually got ourselves into some reasonable positions - we just haven't been able to take advantage of them.

"Like today, at 3-209, we were probably set to get 310-320 and then it's a completely different ball game. So making better decisions, or executing our skills better in those key moments - I'd never have a go at someone like Aaron Finch for trying to go over mid-on with the full ball because he plays it so well, but he just executed it poorly, that's all it is.

"So we've just got to execute our skills better in those moments to ensure we get the scores we need to (compete) against quality oppositions like England and India.

"So 270 isn't good enough; and scoring 60 off the last 11 overs isn't good enough against a quality batting line-up like England."

Having only three frontline bowlers backed up by two all-rounders - Mitch Marsh and Marcus Stoinis - the Australian bowling line-up looked low on power.

"We went in without the spinner on this occasion and tried to make our batting a little bit deeper, and that obviously didn't work as well as we would have liked," Smith said.

"We're still trying to find the right balance. Obviously, the two other quicks (Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood) aren't here at the moment either, (Tim) Paine's not well ... no excuse, we didn't play well enough and England outplayed us in every facet of the game.

"In Sydney it's a do-or-die clash for us, and we've got to come out and start playing some better one-day cricket," Smith said.