SYDNEY, Feb 9: New Zealand’s cricketers left Australia Saturday after another promising tour ended in defeat but still confident of beating England.

“We have to pick ourselves up for England who perhaps aren’t the quality of what we’ve been playing over here,” said all-rounder Chris Cairns, one of the stars of the series just finished.

“Hopefully the competition we’ve been playing in will put us in good stead.

“It will be a good series but I think hopefully with the exposure we’ve had here to good quality play will start us as favourites.”

Skipper Stephen Fleming said New Zealand had shown they were good enough to compete against any side but had to learn how to turn close matches into victories.

“We’re disappointed the way things finished for us,” Fleming said.—Reuters