England captain Alastair Cook has claimed that his bowlers must "get savvy with the ball" following the 25-run defeat to Sri Lanka in the first one-day international.

Moeen Ali scored the third-fastest century by an English player in ODI cricket to lead the fight for the tourists, but they were unable to chase down the 318 required as Sri Lanka took full advantage of some below-par bowling displays in Colombo.

"Moeen showed us the way, it's just frustrating because we are not putting a whole game together," Cook told reporters. "When someone gets the third fastest hundred you should win the game.

"Our wides I think cost us. Including the extra balls, that's probably another 30 runs and we lost by about 30, but there's a lot of really good things in terms of how we attacked with the bat.

"We just need to tighten up and get savvy with the ball."

Colombo will stage the second ODI on Saturday.