Hussain - reflective in defeat Photo Photosport

England's fielding, and their batting in the last 15 overs, are areas of their one-day game that captain Nasser Hussain would like to see improved.

He was commenting at the end of his side's five-game National Bank Series with New Zealand which ended in New Zealand winning the series 3-2 last night.

Hussain said that right throughout the winter tours, England had not been batting well in the last 15 overs.

"Even today we didn't hit enough boundaries, even when we kept wickets in hand, we've not hit enough boundaries, there is a point in the innings where we have to take on these short boundaries.

"You saw Nathan Astle today, there was a lot of sixes hit and you watch a series from Australia, people like Brett Lee, various people, hitting sixes and it's an area we haven't quite mastered yet. It's a technical thing, it's a confidence thing.

"There's a lot of areas we have improved on. That's another area we've just gone and identified. I don't mean slogging the ball for six when you've got to take the risk and every time this winter when we've just tried to progress and take the risk, we've found ourselves losing wickets and that's something we're going to have to look at," he said.

England's fielding did not really improve during the series. They dropped catches regularly and again tonight put down century-maker Astle twice, once when he was on 15 (Nick Knight at short cover) and on 108 (Ashley Giles, a caught and bowled chance).

Knight had an horrendous series, especially given the reputation he had as a catcher before the tour.

"We are still a little bit sloppy in the field, we have good days and bad days, we take good catches and we drop some catches.

"So that's an area we've got to improve on if we're going to compete against South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, very good fielding sides, and the last 15 overs is an area we have to work on," he said.

Hussain still felt that the failure to capitalise on the situation created in the opening game in Christchurch had an effect on the final outcome of the series.

England were 150/2 and dismissed for 196.

"That doesn't take anything away from New Zealand. They got the wickets, they bowled us out but if we look that's where we lost the series 150/2 and if we'd got 250-260, we'd have won that game," Hussain said.

© CricInfo