England have some key areas to address if they are to advance to the later stages of the World Cup, coach Peter Moores said yesterday.

The global tournament began in ignominious fashion for Eoin Morgan’s men as they were thrashed by 111 runs by co-hosts Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

England’s “death” bowling came into question as they conceded 105 runs off the final 10 overs and 75 in the last six, while chasing an unlikely victory target of 343 which was heavily undermined as they slipped to 92 for six.

They next face New Zealand in Wellington on Friday in another difficult game and Moores hopes to see signs of improvement.

“If we’re going to win this tournament we’ve got to get better over the next few weeks so by the time we get to the knockout stages we’ve got a real chance of putting people under pressure to win games,” he said.

“(The defeat) showed there’s a gap between us and Australia. We can still beat them, of course we can, and we’ve got to try to bridge that gap over the next few weeks as well as winning games to get through to the knockout stages.

“If we play Australia again it will be in the knockout stages and by that time we’ve got to have addressed some of the key areas where we need to get better.”

Morgan’s dreadful run of form continued as he was dismissed for a six-ball duck on Saturday — his third successive blob against Australia.

He did make a century against the same opposition in his first match as England’s permanent one-day skipper last month and Moores hopes the flamboyant left-hander can emerge from his slump sooner rather than later.

“He hasn’t got in,” Moores added. “He’s got to remember he got a hundred a month ago.

“Nobody was more frustrated than Eoin. He had a clear plan of what he was trying to do and that didn’t come off for him.”