McCullum eyes New Zealand fightback

Brendon McCullum is looking ahead to the remainder of the Natwest one-day Series

Brendon McCullum believes England’s faith in their one-day abilities would have been dented after only rain saved them from probable defeat in the second NatWest Series clash with New Zealand.

McCullum had taken the Kiwis to the verge of victory at Edgbaston with an unbeaten 60 before the umpires took the players off one over short of the minimum cut-off point to obtain a result.

But McCullum cut through the disappointment felt by his team-mates and insists the Black Caps can now turn around the five-game series - starting with the third clash at Bristol on Saturday.

McCullum said: “We know we’ve made a huge step forward in our ability to win this series from where we were a few days ago.

“They are a confident side when they’re in front and they managed to run away with the Twenty20 game and the first ODI at Durham.

“But there has definitely been a momentum shift and we’ve got no reason to believe we can’t beat them three times in a row before the end of the series.

“Yes, we were down in the dumps and not playing as well as we knew we could. We still didn’t play outstandingly well at Edgbaston but it was good, solid cricket.

“If we can put them under more pressure from the start I’ve got no doubt we can win this series.”

McCullum is happy with his current form but would like to convert it into three-figure scores before the end of the current series.

He said: “I’m feeling pretty good with what I’ve done in the past 12-18 months and where I’m at with my batting, as long as I keep making contributions to help us win games.

“I’ve had to work hard on changing gears, how hard to attack at times and when to step back a bit. I pride myself on that. I’ve learned some pretty good lessons in domestic cricket about converting big scores.

“I haven’t scored an ODI hundred yet but, if I get into a situation where I can kick on and turn these scores into big hundreds, I’m confident I can do it.

“A couple of hundreds would be nice in the last three games to help the team win with a big contribution.”