Pietersen retains belief

Kevin Pietersen trains ahead of the third ODI © Getty Images

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Kevin Pietersen is desperate to make amends for one of his worst experiences as a one-day player with England by defying expectations to triumph in the series against New Zealand.

The Hampshire batsman has been stunned at England’s performances in the opening two games of the five match series, particularly Tuesday's 10-wicket defeat in Hamilton.

It was only the fourth time in England's history they had lost a one-day match by such a margin and their worst performance since losing by nine wickets against Australia in Adelaide a year ago before the lights had come on in a day-night encounter.

Shocked as Pietersen has been, however, he believes there is enough talent and character within the England side - as they showed with two comprehensive wins in the Twenty20 matches last week - to mount an unlikely comeback and win the series against all the odds.

"That's probably the worst I've known with the one-day side, certainly," he admitted. "I didn't play the game in Australia last year when the guys got beaten before the lights came on because I was back home with a broken rib.

"It wasn't a special place to be in the dressing room the other night but what's gone is gone and what we need to realise is that tomorrow is hopefully going to be a start to a change that we have to make.

"We have three games left and it's pretty simple - we have to win three games to win the series.

Peter Moores leads training in heavy rain © Getty Images

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"I think this team is good enough to do it and I can't put my finger on what's happened in the last week - I haven't got a clue.

"We all think we're good enough to beat New Zealand, we did last week twice in four days, so it's a case of going out and trying to turn this series around in 24 hours."

Pietersen fears a little complacency may have crept into the side after winning the two Twenty20 games with such ease, which prompted a severe dressing down from coach Peter Moores in the aftermath of Tuesday's defeat.

Most of the squad also practised on Wednesday at Eden Park despite the net session being regarded as voluntary, which Pietersen believes is an encouraging response to the serious lambasting they received from Moores the previous evening.

"Sometimes you need a reality check," said Pietersen. "Sometimes you can get too far ahead of yourself, get your feet off the ground and try and act and do things you probably shouldn't be doing and you take a few things for granted.

"Maybe after the two Twenty20s subconsciously we thought it would be a decent series for us. Now we've got our backs against the wall because we maybe took our foot off the gas. I don't think we all did that but it's a case for us now of turning it around.

"It's been a reality check and we need to realise where we're at. We're a long way off beating Australia if we played them right now which is somewhere we want to get to - to be able to compete with Australia, beat them and try and be the best in the world.

"That has got to be our aspiration, you have to try and be the best. We know where we are at at the moment, reality has probably hit home in the last week so we've got to try and turn things around."