England badly need a lift and runs from Morgan would provide just that, and while there is an acceptance New Zealand will be no easier to beat than Australia, the team are relieved to be facing different opponents.
"Australia have been very tough for us. Since we've been here they have beaten us every single time," Moeen Ali said. "Now we don't face them for a while I think getting a win and backing it up with another - we haven't had back-to-back wins so far - we can get on a roll and we will be good. Obviously, the confidence goes down a little bit but we have got until Friday to work hard and try and get some confidence back in the nets. If we can play well against New Zealand and get the result I am sure everyone in the camp will be very confident."
England practised at the Basin Reserve, the historic old Test ground in Wellington, yesterday because there are no net facilities at the Westpac rugby stadium where the game against New Zealand will be held.
A sell-out capacity crowd of 34,000 is expected and the stadium, known as the Cake Tin, is famous for its raucous atmosphere, which is why when England played there (and lost by 155 runs) in 2002, the film director Peter Jackson recorded the noise to use in the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Facing another hostile home crowd will again test this youngish England team and Moeen admitted that the occasion and huge attendance at their opening game in Melbourne might have affected some of them.
"Maybe we were a little bit nervous," he said. "A lot of us are probably not used to such big games. If you look at the Australian side, a lot of them play in big competitions with big crowds a lot of the time. A lot of us probably played in places like New Road in front of few people."
Twenty20 tournaments such as the Big Bash and the Indian Premier League expose young cricketers in Australia and India to playing in high-pressure games in front of large crowds, which is one reason why English cricketers need to start playing more in such tournaments.
New Zealand's destruction of Scotland's top order in Dunedin - Scotland were 12 for four - was a reminder of the danger posed by Tim Southee and left-armer Trent Boult when the ball swings. But New Zealand's faltering response in losing seven wickets chasing 143 to beat Scotland showed they are not quite as dominant as Australia.
"On a par with Australia" was Moeen's verdict on New Zealand's bowling attack, so there will be no let up for Morgan. "He is still the same Eoin Morgan he was when he was just trying to get everybody going and keep everyone's heads up," Moeen said. "He is a very strong character. He is not showing that he's lacking confidence, which is good for the players to see."
England actually won their last one-day series in New Zealand two years ago, when Steven Finn bowled beautifully off his since-abandoned short run-up. But since then New Zealand have progressed while England have declined. This is the strongest team New Zealand have had. In the eighties and nineties they had world-class players in Martin Crowe and Richard Hadlee but now they have four or five players wh are at the top of the tree in one-day cricket.
Boult was one of the big winners in the IPL auction, landing a $633,000 deal with the Sunrisers Hyderabad, the same team that bought Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara.
"Australia have set the standard and New Zealand is going to be just as hard we feel," Moeen said. "We're going to have to up our skill level and our game. It shows just how tough international cricket is."
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