GROS ISLET, St. Lucia, (Reuters):

COACH DUNCAN Fletcher warned that piling too much pressure on the England players would make matters worse after they lost their opening World Cup encounter to New Zealand.

The Kiwis easily overcame Fletcher's men by six wickets in their Group C opener in St. Lucia on Friday with England's middle order losing three wickets for one run in seven balls.

The loss also looks set to put England on the back foot in the Super Eights because New Zealand will carry the two points into the next stage if the two sides qualify as expected at the expense of group outsiders Kenya and Canada.

We realise we had to win four out of the seven games to get to the World Cup semi-finals. But having lost that one we've now got four out of six which makes our task a little bit harder, Fletcher said yesterday.

(But) they'll haul themselves up. This side has done it before. There's a good atmosphere among the side. It was a good sign to see they didn?t like losing.

Criticised by British media

Opener Ed Joyce, playing ahead of Andrew Strauss, made a duck as he again struggled in Friday's match, while Andrew Flintoff also made nought and has been criticised by British media.

We want someone in the top four to bat through. But you have got to be very careful you don't add a lot more pressure by over-emphasising, because it is just another pressure you are building on the players that they don?t really need,?= he said.

It's crucial that we don't lose the middle order. We?ve got those individuals who can explode at the back end. But it is not easy when you are out there.

England had a break yesterday.

They are having a day off. We've had some really hard practices. We want to keep them out of the sun. We'll have a good meeting tonight, he said.