Fletcher confident of revival

England coach Duncan Fletcher has admitted his side’s World Cup campaign has gotten much tougher after their six wicket loss to New Zealand, but is still confident of their chances in the tournament.

England, whose batsman only managed 209 in their 50 overs were unable to defend the score and lost the opening match by six wickets to New Zealand.

“We realised before the start that we’d probably have to win four out of seven matches to get to the semi-final,” Fletcher told the media.

“We’ve now got to win four out of six which makes our job that much harder.

“To get an early win is a huge advantage but everything is not lost yet. We’ve lost before and come back strongly and shown a lot of character before and hopefully we’ll show that again.”

Back home, Steve Harmison who recently retired from the shorter form of the game, also threw his weight behind the English side.

“I’ve got full confidence the lads will bounce back,” Harmison told the BBC

“I thought we would struggle to get wickets with the new ball but that was the one thing we did, and did it well, so the rest will fall into place.

“I think we need to get used to batting on those wickets. I don’t think we’re really tuned in to that yet.

“I think playing against two minnows in the next week will help us as we can get big scores on the board and gain confidence.”

England play Canada on Sunday for their second Group C game, in St Lucia.