Kevin Pietersen disappointed by losing start to captaincy

Jun 29 2008 By Rob Gearing

KEVIN PIETERSEN blamed poor batting as he made a losing start to his England cricket captaincy.

New Zealand won the the final NatWest Series clash at Lord's by 51 runs after KP's men were all out for 215 chasing 266-5.

After being hammered in the opening game at Durham the Kiwis hit back to triumph 3-1 and repeat the scoreline of the winter series.

Big hitting by Jacob Oram and Scott Styris set a challenging total England never seriously threatened to match despite 69 off 75 balls from Owais Shah.

Skipper and spinner Daniel Vettori (3-32) showed why he is ranked best bowler in the ICC one-day lists as he ripped out the middle order.

Pietersen, who managed just six runs, said: "I think the batting was what let us down and is what has let us down since Durham when we won by 114 runs.

"You can't afford to get 20, 30 and 40s - they don't win series. Hundreds win series.

"Consistency is the word we are after. We played so well in Twenty20 and the first onedayer and then our batting has let us down.

"That is where we need to look at a few things. We have got ourselves into positions to win things but have let ourselves down a bit."

Meanwhile, Jamie How says the Black Caps don't want to end their UK tour by losing to Scotland or Ireland this week because it would make the 30-hour flight home feel like a month.

How admits they're on a roll and that spells danger for their rivals at Mannofield in Aberdeen in the Lloyds TSB Tri-Series, starting on Tuesday.

The opener said: "We're a good one-day team and I'm sure that will show itself. We want to finish with wins over Scotland and Ireland so we can enjoy the journey home."