KEY POINTS:
Ed Joyce bristles when asked whether he agrees that England are the outsiders to qualify for the tri-series finals.
The man expected to fill Kevin Pietersen's shoes in today's tri-series showdown at the Bellerive Oval is prepared to concede favouritism to the world champion Australians, but draws the line at bending the knee to the New Zealanders.
"I wouldn't say that, no," Joyce shot back yesterday. "We've got to put ourselves on the same pedestal as the other teams.
"We've certainly got the players and the talent to beat any team. We've got to think we're at least as good a side as New Zealand, and hopefully we can go out there and win at least enough to get through to the finals."
England, seriously weakened by the withdrawal of first Marcus Trescothick and then Pietersen, and without a win since arriving in Australia in late November, were again beaten by the hosts in their first tri-series outing at Melbourne on Friday.
To make matters worse, New Zealand have beaten England in seven of their past nine contests, and will be anxious to gain a psychological edge in the tri-series, before their World Cup first-round clash at St Lucia.
England have made hard work of their recent ODI programme, winning just seven of their past 27 games (including a match against Ireland) while missing out on the final four for the Champions Trophy tournament.
But Joyce said his team had accepted the cards they'd been dealt and were determined to make the most of them today, hopefully by employing a solid all-round team-effort, with a little assistance from some of their star players.
"We have got an inexperienced team but that is just the way it has gone without KP and Trescothick," he said. "We've got Vaughan back now captaining us, and we've got Freddie back batting and bowling which is good. We've simply got to play to our strengths - which is for the top three or four to go out and get meaningful scores, and the big hitters at the end to come in like [Jamie] Dalrymple, Flintoff and [Paul] Nixon."
England coach Duncan Fletcher yesterday declared the match against New Zealand a massive challenge for his side, in that they needed to win to ease their anxiety levels, boost confidence and create a base from where they could push for the finals.
Fletcher, who spent much of yesterday's press conference stonewalling, just as his batsmen have for most of the tour, conceded today's contest had the potential to either ease English nerves, or increase the tension.
Asked to assess a New Zealand side that was bowled out for 73 before leaving for the tri-series, and then lost seven wickets for 23 during Sunday's 105-run loss to Australia, the English coach said he could empathise with his opponents.
"They were playing against a good side, they've got a couple of injuries as well and are a bit vulnerable. It's very difficult to find players who can quickly fill the gaps and I think New Zealand are in the same boat as we are."
NZ V ENGLAND
Hobart, noon today
New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (c), Brendon McCullum, Nathan Astle, Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton, Daniel Vettori, Hamish Marshall, Craig McMillan, James Franklin, Andre Adams, Shane Bond, Mark Gillespie, Michael Mason, Jeetan Patel.
England: Michael Vaughan (c), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Jamie Dalrymple, Andy Flintoff, Ed Joyce, Jon Lewis, Sajid Mahmood, Paul Nixon, Monty Panesar, Ravi Bopara, Liam Plunkett, Chris Read, Andrew Strauss, Chris Tremlett.
