Stephen Fleming issued a warning to England after New Zealand went down to a 33-run defeat in the fourth one-day international at Auckland. "The series is something we desperately want," he said, "and we tend to play our best cricket when we're desperate. It's 2-2 and that's the beauty of getting a jump-start. I will be very positive in the dressing-room because that's the only way to go." He admitted, though, that the top-order batting was a concern after New Zealand slumped to 86 for 6. "As a group, the engine-room is only sparking on one cylinder. You need the bottom five to ice the cake, not make it," he said, blithely mixing his metaphors. "We just need a little bit more from everybody and that comes from within."

But Fleming argued that his batsmen, who had to score at least a run a ball for much of the innings, were forced to go for their strokes. "We had to create a strike-rate. There was a level of risk that was increased, and the result bordered on recklessness at times. We faced some very good bowling first up. The ball dinked around quite nicely for a while – Hoggard in particular – and we just played our shots at the wrong time."

He was impressed with Michael Vaughan, who spanked 59 in 53 balls in his first game of the series. Throughout the series, Fleming has been reluctant to discuss the opposition, but he has shown signs of cracking in the last few days. "He was fantastic. Brush the cobwebs off and away you go."

Asked whether the Duckworth/Lewis calculations, which required New Zealand to score 30 more runs than England but in the same number of overs, had cost his side, Fleming made no excuses. "It's very hard to work out," he said. "We've had this argument several times, and the bottom line was we had a target to chase, and we just didn't go about doing it well enough."

He also said he was glad the game didn't go over into the reserve day, as at one stage it looked as if it might. "We're an entertainment business," he said, "and we had a full house and there's a responsibility to provide entertainment. I would certainly prefer to play a limited-overs match in front of 36,000 than in front of 10,000 tomorrow."

The momentum is with England. But Fleming was talking tough. "You know how quickly that can change," he said with a glint in his eye. "And it will." England's comeback isn't complete yet.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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