5th ODI, Dunedin
Tuesday, February 26, 2002

I'm disappointed to have lost that game, but to be honest, we never gave ourselves a chance. I think we were always 30 runs short of a defendable score. We lost three early wickets for no apparent reason, but myself and Owais Shah put together a solid recovery from a position that wasn't ideal. Really one of us two needed to go on and bat through. Again, it's those last 15 overs where we're just not kicking on. We've lost matches like that before.

But there are positives to take from this game. The way Shah came in for Michael Vaughan and stepped up with a fifty was impressive for a lad who hasn't had much cricket on this tour - and our bowling was excellent again.

Top of my list of things that have to improve is our fielding. We drop a lot of half-chances and sooner or later those drops cost you matches, and lost matches cost you series. The other major area is our batting in the last 15 to 20 overs. Far too often we throw away a good position by not batting through, or not taking proper advantage of that time. Then we end up 20, 30, 40 runs short and get into impossible positions - like today. I can't expect my bowlers to be able to defend an underpar score all the time.

There's been a lot of speculation about whether I should be batting at No. 3 - but that's just press talk. I've got no problems with people saying it - that's their job - and my job is to get on with batting for England. Before this series I averaged 42 batting at No. 3, with a strike rate of nearly 80 percent. Those stats don't lie. My one failing has been not going on and getting a hundred, but I'm sure it'll come. You just have to keep believing in yourself and backing your own ability.

As far as planning for the World Cup goes, things are definitely becoming a lot clearer. Last summer, against Australia and Pakistan, we were a complete shambles. Now we're competing every time. I'd say we're 60-70 percent there.

The other 30 percent is what we now need to focus on. And it's not something that's going to happen overnight - people have got to realise that. It's a gradual process and it will take at least a year in my opinion.

If I had to give us marks out of ten for this series, I'd give us six. But, if I took into account our progress since last summer, it'd have to be eight out of ten. There's a lot of one-day cricket next year - June and July will be big, big months for us. These lads here have got to take what they've learned back with them and go that step further. I want them to play to the standard of international cricketers all the time, and not get into the county mentality. We've made good strides this winter - and we need to build on it.

Nasser Hussain was talking to Camilla Rossiter. His thoughts appear on Wisden.com, other duties permitting, at the end of each international that England play. He will be giving us his reaction to each day's play of the Test series, starting on March 13.

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