Cricket: Black Caps not pushing the panic button after heavy defeat to England

Mitchell Santner top scored in New Zealand's second ODI defeat to England. Photosport

England's comprehensive win at Mount Maunganui to square the ODI series won't force a major rethink among New Zealand's brains trust ahead of the next match in Wellington on Saturday.

Rather, allrounder Mitchell Santner reckons, it's more about sticking with the philosophy that had seen them win nine ODIs on the bounce this season up until last night, just making sure they do it better.

Santner was among the pick of the New Zealand players in the six-wicket loss, top scoring with his maiden half century, an unbeaten 63 which put some substance into an otherwise lacklustre batting effort.

A smart low catch at square leg got rid of the dangerous Jason Roy early before England powered away on the back of half centuries from captain Eion Morgan and the game-changing allrounder Ben Stokes.

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"They've been playing some very good one-day cricket.

"They're a quality side, they took down Australia in Australia and that's not easy to do so we're going to have to play some of our best as well to beat them," Santner said today.

The philosophies of the teams aren't radically different, certainly in the batting approach.

"Our blueprint is we like to be aggressive in the first 10 overs, same with England.

"Credit to them, in both games they've put us under pressure in the first 10 overs (New Zealand were 27 for three inside 10 overs in Wellington; 34 for two after 10 last night).

"That partnership of Tom (Latham) and Ross (Taylor) in Hamilton got us to a pretty good position. Apart from that we've been under the pump early. They've bowled nice and tight and haven't given us much.

"But we've seen before when Colin Munro and Martin Guptill get going we get off to a flier. Then you have a little more time in the middle and can cash in at the back end."

The first two games have only reinforced a feeling that there's not much between these teams, who are ranked No 3 (England) and No 4 in the ODI game.

"We're very similar sides," Santner said.

"We know how good they are on surfaces similar to what we're used to. It's going to be a tight series, well fought, and whoever plays better on the day will take it.

"We need to learn from what happened in the last game and move on quick as we can and show that fight in Wellington."