BRISTOL, England, 6 July 2004 — England captain Michael Vaughan insisted his side would have no problem bouncing back for today’s vital NatWest Series triangular match with the West Indies at Lord’s despite their latest defeat against New Zealand.

Victory, with a bonus point, in their last pool game would see England into the Lord’s final of this one-day event against New Zealand on Saturday.

But any sort of defeat would end England’s hopes after New Zealand qualified thanks to a convincing six-wicket win against Vaughan’s men here Sunday.

However the opening batsman told reporters after that defeat: “This one we’ve just lost was almost, not irrelevant because they are all important games but we knew that, if even we’d beaten the Kiwis, that we could still be knocked out if we lose to the West Indies.”

England beat the West Indies by seven wickets when the sides last met in the tournament in Leeds on Thursday. But the West Indies, on June 27 at Trent Bridge, defeated England by the same margin. And, if they avoid a bonus point reverse today, West Indies could still qualify if they beat New Zealand on Thursday at the Rose Bowl in the last pool game of the tournament.

“It’s a massive game. We must try to emulate the performance at Leeds,” Vaughan said.

However, Vaughan insisted England would not worry about the bonus point.

“We’ll just try to win. If you try to be clever, you might come unstuck.”

But the 29-year-old Yorkshire batsman added he hoped England could exploit any frailties in a West Indies team beaten convincingly by five-wickets by New Zealand at Cardiff on Saturday.

“It’s important we just go out and put some pressure on the West Indies early to see if they have got any cobwebs from the other day because they did suffer a heavy defeat.”

England’s latest loss was the tenth time in a row they’d lost a One-Day International when they’d batted first.

However, they did post 237 for seven — their best total of the tournament — with all-rounder Andrew Flintoff’s 106 his maiden One-Day International hundred.

And Vaughan insisted: “Confidence is pretty high. I thought the performance today (Sunday) was pretty good. The toss was quite important. To get 237, we were quite happy with that total.”