England must be less clumsy to win series: Hussain

England need to overcome their clumsiness if they are to beat New Zealand in the deciding one-day international, captain Nasser Hussain said on Sunday.

The five-match series is locked at 2-2 after England's victories in Napier and Auckland and New Zealand's wins in Christchurch and Wellington.

"If we do all the disciplines together we can beat New Zealand," Hussain said ahead of Tuesday's fifth one-day game at Carisbrook.

"The trouble is we can be a little bit clumsy. We take a good catch and then put one down. If we put it all together we will progress and it would be nice to get it right here."

England's clumsiness was evident when Chris Cairns and Chris Harris were threatening to take the game away from them in Auckland. Their fielding became error-ridden under pressure after looking the slickest it had been in the series.

New Zealand coach Dennis Aberhart dismissed suggestions that his team had taken England lightly after going 2-0 up from the first two games.

"There was no way there was any sort of complacency," Aberhart said. "We prepared really well for Napier and Auckland and we will do for the last game. We all know England from way back and you take them lightly at your peril.

Aberhart said that as the Carisbrook pitch was arguably the fastest in the country, the 20-year-old fast bowler Ian Butler would probably come back into the team in place of batsman Brendon McCullum after moving down to 12th man in Auckland.

"We hope our top batsmen get among the runs because quite frankly that is the biggest worry," Aberhart said. "We can't rely on the Cairns, Harrises and (Andre) Adamses to help us out all the time."

England batsman Michael Vaughan's shoulder injury from Auckland may preclude him playing and Owais Shah may win back his place.

Vaughan is due to have a scan taken of his shoulder on Monday.

Mail Cricket Editor