 Paul Nixon's knock gave England a glimmer of hope - but it was not enough |
England captain Michael Vaughan was left to rue his side's middle-order collapse after the six-wicket defeat by New Zealand in their World Cup opener. Vaughan said: "When we got the early wickets, we thought it could still be.
"But Scott Styris and Jacob Oram played a great partnership in getting them across the line.
"The three wickets we lost at 130 in our innings hit us hard - 210 was too short a total to be competitive against a good team like New Zealand."
England lost Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff in quick succession to slump to 134-6.
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A battling stand between Paul Nixon (42) and Liam Plunkett (29) gave England hope.
New Zealand were then reduced to 19-3 before Styris and Oram saw them home in comfortable fashion.
Vaughan admitted: "We could have played a lot better. If we had got a total of 240 or 250 on a pitch like this you never know, but the cluster of wickets we lost in the middle of our innings didn't help.
"We didn't get a player getting to 80 or 100, where we know we post a decent total.
"It's a disappointment and a bit of a frustration but we were in a position of strength when we were in the field and we couldn't manage to capitalise on that either."
| We believe that we're a competitive unit, but it's important we improve our performance |
Vaughan must now pick his men up for a match against minnows Canada on Sunday.
But he said: "It's a good thing that we play so soon. The bodies might be a little bit tired but it's sometimes the best thing to get back on the horse."
Vaughan dispelled any thoughts of experimentation going into their game against Canada, a team ranked behind Scotland and Ireland among the smaller nations.
"We'll be picking what we feel is the best XI to beat Canada. There will be no thought of playing people just to get practice," he claimed.
"We need to make sure we win the game and get our World Cup campaign off and running.
"We've played in the conditions here now and we just have to improve our performance and make sure we come out with a victory."
He added: "It's important now that we win our remaining two games. We believe that we're a competitive unit, but it's important we improve our performance and work harder."
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