Captain Kevin Pietersen demanded more hundreds from England's batsmen after bad light helped India to a Duckworth-Lewis victory in the one-day series.
Chasing 241, India sealed the win after being offered the light nine overs from the end to take a 3-0 series lead.
"It is frustrating. It's unfortunate to be on the losing side again, but there are areas we can improve on," he said.
"The boys came in, fought hard and showed aggression. But we have to score more hundreds to be more competitive."
After batting first and scoring 240 and with Andrew Flintoff grabbing three wickets and Graeme Swann impressing with his off-spin, it was a brighter performance from England.
However, with the hosts on 198-5 and darkness descending, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan needed no second invitation to accept the offer of the light in the 40th over.
"We had a real good chance of finishing on top - some of our batters got in but it would have been nice to see them get a hundred," added Pietersen, who saw his openers Ravi Bopra and Ian Bell score 60 and 46.
"My biggest thing for playing for England is you play for the badge and you play hard at all times - today we showed we had a real good go at it.
"We're getting better and the games are getting closer. There are still four games to go - so you never know."
India captain Mahendra Dhoni said that early darkness was well known at Kanpur and felt the match would be decided on the Duckworth-Lewis method.
"We knew that it would come in to play here, especially with the weather at this venue," said Dhoni.
606: DEBATE"I had a sheet in my pocket to check to see how we were doing. We knew we had one more powerplay to go so we knew if we didn't lose a couple of wickets then we'd be ok.
"The important thing is that we win the series. Until we win the fourth match we have not won so we have to keep going."
With England needing to win the fourth game in Bangalore on Sunday, Flintoff, who scored 26 and finished with figures of 3-31 off nine overs, said the lads were "down" and "bitterly disappointed".
"We can't fault the lads for effort. We've got a mountain to climb but we've got to climb it."
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