Kevin Pietersen in call for calm as whitewash looms large for England

Kevin Pietersen has ordered his struggling England cricketers to look on the bright side despite facing a limited-overs whitewash in India.

"I don't want to see anybody with their heads down and moping around," said Pietersen after last night's 19-run defeat in Bangalore left them 4-0 down in a seven-match series. "We want to come back firing on all cylinders in Cuttack on Wednesday."

The fear for England is that they will not only lose every one-dayer but go into the two-match Test series low on confidence.

But Pietersen insists there must be no feeling sorry for themselves. He said: "We've still got a Test series to come and what better place to play than a place where cricket is a religion?

"We've got to bounce back and make sure we keep this one-day series competitive. We're going to hold our heads up high and get on with trying to win some games of cricket."

Chasing an adjusted target of 198 in 22 overs, England were soon way behind the asking rate and only got as close as they did thanks to a stand of 82 off 48 balls between Owais Shah and Andrew Flintoff.