England Cricket / Editor / 22 April 2007 /

Kevin Pietersen is confident England will have a bright future, after helping the side defeat West Indies by one wicket in their final World Cup game.

The Hampshire batsman smashed 100 off 91 balls as England gave Duncan Fletcher a winning end to his eight-year spell as coach against the World Cup hosts, as they ended their involvement in the tournament on a high note by finishing on 301-9 off 49.5 overs in response to the Windies' 300.

Despite a disappointing campaign in which England failed to progress to the semi-finals, Pietersen feels the signs are evident that they will go on to bigger and better things.

He said: "I'm just pleased for Fletch that we got the victory on his last day.

"We've had a disappointing winter, but I'm looking forward to the next couple of years - they could be very good ones for us."

Meanwhile, skipper Michael Vaughan (who hit 79 on Saturday) admitted that England have under-performed in the competition but feels the win will give the players a boost.

Vaughan said: "At stages today we showed what a side we can be, but there were stages when we also showed we're a bit rough around the edges as well."

He added: "What was important was that we know we play West Indies [at home] in a few weeks time and we wanted to get one up on them going into that Test series. I know it's a one-day game, but we wanted to take a look at their players and we wanted to play well."

The two sides will meet again soon with Test and one-day series' in England starting on May 17 - watch out for new Betfair markets closer to the beginning of the opening Test at Lords.

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