Rising

Owais Shah is confident England can bounce back from their humiliation in Wellington and fight their way back into the one-day series against New Zealand.

The Middlesex batsman was one of the many players who under-performed during Saturday's opener to the five-match series, when New Zealand responded to comprehensive defeats in the two Twenty20 Internationals by claiming a six-wicket win with 20 overs to spare.

It was a shock to the system for an England team who had previously looked capable of dominating the hosts during the five-match series and confounded local critics who had labelled New Zealand's latest side as their worst for 40 years.

But Shah is confident England can respond strongly to the defeat in Tuesday`s day-night match at Seddon Park and rediscover the form they showed in the two Twenty20 wins.

"We know it was a poor performance by our team, but it was just one game," stressed Shah.

"We know we didn't play well but after the way we played in the two Twenty20 matches we believe we still have the momentum.

"We believe we just had one bad day at the office and hopefully we can put that right here - we have to make sure we don't go 2-0 down."

Shah accepts England's current predicament is not too different to their situation after being dispatched by 119 runs in the opening match of their series in Sri Lanka last October, when they fought back to win the series 3-2.

"It's similar to where we were in Sri Lanka when we adapted to the conditions after the first game, when we got a hammering by Sri Lanka," he explained.

"We came back strongly then and went on to win the series and it's still early days in this one. We all believe we can still win games out here and try and win the series."

England are considering whether to recall in-form Hampshire all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas as a replacement for Ravi Bopara or keep the same side that were beaten so comprehensively at the Westpac Stadium.

But Shah admitted that no matter what line-up England put out for that opening match, it should have come as no surprise to them how New Zealand responded to their Twenty20 defeats.

"They're third in the world and there's a reason why they are up there and we expected them to come out and fight," he added.

"They've had a bit of criticism after the Twenty20 matches so we knew they would be working hard and trying to get back, which is what they did, and it's now up to us to do the same."

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