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"They weren't thinking about their game plans well enough," he said.

"On wickets that were helpful to bowlers, players have thought 250 or 260 is a good score.

"They must realise that partnerships are more important and that it doesn't always matter how many runs you make or what rate you score at."

He added: "I think it is more the thinking process rather than the technical aspects of it."

Fletcher hinted changes could be made to the squad but said chief of selectors David Graveney would have to be consulted.

However he defended a middle-order labelled as all-rounders, saying: "They are specialist batters; they were picked as batters."

He is a pleasure to see and I am really glad we have got him Fletcher on Steve Harmison

Captain Michael Vaughan said England's batsmen never looked like getting a sufficient total for their attack to defend.

"Each individual's got to look at their own performance and admit we weren't good enough," he said.

"They put the ball in the right area, we played some iffy shots, they got some wickets, got the momentum and put our middle order under pressure.

"The most disappointing factor is that we're not giving the bowlers enough runs to go out and get us a victory."

On a positive note, Steve Harmison continued his development in the limited-overs game with career-best figures of 3-38.

Playing in his first one-day match at his home ground, the Durham spearhead stunned the Kiwis with a burst of three wickets for 10 runs.

"[Bowling coach] Troy Cooley and I were saying that we had not seen Harmison bowl with such rhythm," Fletcher said.

"You could see the way he was following through down the wicket and the pace he was bowling at.

"I don't think there are many batsmen in world cricket who would have liked to have been out there.