Could not cope with NZ - Morgan

Eoin Morgan has admitted England were "out-skilled" and "exposed" by New Zealand as they suffered another crushing World Cup defeat.

Morgan, the England captain, accepted his side paid the price for "not doing our basics right" after they lost their last seven wickets for just 19 runs. In terms of balls remaining, it equalled the biggest defeat in England's ODI history. It left them bottom of the Group A table and in danger of failing to qualify for the quarter-finals.

While Morgan credited New Zealand and Tim Southee, in particular, for an outstanding display in the field, he said England had performed well below expectation. England also lost their first game, against Australia, by 111 runs.

"We were out-skilled," Morgan said. "We are not doing our basics well and we are being exposed by good teams. We have seen that here.

"These first two games, against Australia and New Zealand, we knew they would be difficult. We are playing against two of the favourites in their home conditions. We envisaged a possibility of losing our first two games. But not by these amounts.

"Credit has to be given to New Zealand for the way they bowled and fielded. It is the best bowling performance we have come across since we've been down this side of the world, which says a lot considering we have played against Australia. Today we could not cope with it. The ball swung late and they exposed us."

Morgan also conceded that he may have erred in batting first after winning the toss. On a light brown pitch, under a cloudless sky, he felt conditions were ideal for batting, but was surprised at the length of time New Zealand managed to make the ball swing.

"With hindsight I wouldn't have batted first if I had known it would swing for that long", he said. "There was not a cloud in the sky and it had not rained here for a while. If it looked like it was going to swing obviously I would have had no hesitation in bowling first because that is our biggest strength.

"Everything today said bat and I just got it wrong. It swung throughout and they managed to build pressure. Credit goes to them."

But while Morgan accepted his side had under-performed, he cautioned against over-reacting. England play Scotland in Christchurch on Monday knowing they have to win.

"My gut instinct is I don't want to go into a state of panic where we make three or four changes for one game," Morgan said. "That is not what I am about. I have always believed in making good decisions and backing the right players at the right time. The eleven we had playing today were the best I believed we had to win the game.

"If conditions change in Christchurch then we will plan accordingly. But just because we were out-performed today does not necessarily mean we will be binning anybody.

"We have to turn things around quickly. We can still make the quarter-finals, but the sooner we start winning and getting momentum the better. In the first game against Australia we were under par and I could see us being tentative, but here we were out-skilled."