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Moores happy with progress during Kiwi series

08/06/2008

England coach Peter Moores was happy with the way his side have progressed during the series against New Zealand.

Having won the third Test by an innings and nine runs England took the series 2-0, but there were moments during the series where the home side had their backs to the wall.

Moores says that he has found out a lot about the players in his team because of those situations and was pleased to see different individuals rise up to help the team during the difficult times.

The coach singled out James Anderson and Stuart Broad for particular praise. Anderson finished as the highest wicket taker in the series while Broad finished as England's fourth top scorer with 119 runs.

Moores said: "We had a settling period which I think we needed; we've found out a lot about different people.

"The emergence of Jimmy Anderson; Stuart Broad has shown he can bat and bowl, which is very important for balancing a team - we are not the finished article but we have moved forward."

Captain Michael Vaughan agreed with Moores that the side had progressed well since the first Test at Lord's.

Vaughan said: "We've got better as the series has gone on. The first two Tests were hard fought and we sneaked a very close contest at Old Trafford."

He also paid tribute t Kevin Pietersen and Tim Ambrose who put on a partnership of 161 for the sixth wicket to put England in a winning position.

Vaughan said: "At 86-5 in this game I never envisaged winning by an innings but credit to Kevin Pietersen and Tim Ambrose for their partnership and to Ryan Sidebottom and James Anderson, who bowled so well."

England will now face New Zealand in a series of one-day internationals before playing South Africa in a four-match Test series.