England team will hope to shrug off a disappointing start to their World Cup campaign with a confidence-boosting win against dark-horses New Zealand in Wellington on Friday.
A morale-sapping 111-run drubbing against title-favourites Australia in Melbourne left England seeking a big improvement against co-hosts New Zealand, who already have two wins under their belt.
But England captain Eoin Morgan insisted his side had not been scarred by their crushing loss to arch-rivals Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
“We’re expected to win games of cricket after getting off to not an ideal start,” Morgan said Wednesday.
“The guys are really disappointed, but we’ve dusted ourselves down and we look ahead to Friday’s game.”
England will want more from their batsmen against the Black Caps, with Morgan himself desperately short of runs, after making just two runs in his last five innings — including four ducks.
“I believe it will work and when it does, hopefully, I can cash in on it and, hopefully, make it either a match-winning performance or build on somebody else’s performance,” said former Ireland batsman Morgan.
England also have to guard against batting slumps, having been bowled out 12 times in their last 18 matches and averaging, by modern standards, a relatively modest 58.80 in the final 10 overs.
By contrast, they conceded 105 runs in the last ten overs against Australia.
“There is a sense of frustration,” admitted Morgan.
“The big games that we play, these first two games in particular, are great practice for the later stages in the tour.
“If we can get wins under our belt against good opposition it can breed confidence for later in the tour. Ideally, you’d build that before the big games, but it is just the way they fall.”
Morgan refused to read too much into New Zealand’s batting slump in their three-wicket win over Scotland on Tuesday while chasing a modest target of 143.
– ‘Great challenge’ –
“It was a nice game to watch,” said Morgan with a grin. “New Zealand chased them seven down when they were probably expected to chase them three or four down.”
England have lost their previous four World Cup matches against New Zealand (second group game in 1983, 1992, 1996 and 2007). In all, New Zealand have won four of the seven World Cup games between the two countries.
Despite that record and their win on Tuesday, New Zealand expect they will have to be extra cautious in their first exposure to a four-pronged pace attack at this World Cup.
“It was a really good performance with the ball and in the field, but we need to improve on our batting,” said New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum after the win over Scotland.
“It should be a great challenge when we play the next one as the surfaces and conditions will also change.
“We are going to have to play incredibly well. This is certainly the strongest side I have ever played in.”
McCullum would certainly like to linger longer at the crease after his whirlwind 49-ball 65 in New Zealand’s 98-run win against Sri Lanka in the opening match and 15 against Scotland.
Ross Taylor will also look to get some runs under his belt after a pair of failures in the opening two matches.
New Zealand’s pace attack will pose a real challenge to England, with all four fast bowlers in good form in the first two games.
However, the Black Caps could yet tinker with the make-up of their attack and bring in off-spinner Nathan McCullum, Brendon’s brother, to take advantage of the likelihood that England will have three left-handers in their top order.