Omens point to New Zealand winning World Cup: Hansen

Celebrated All Blacks mentor Steve Hansen believes New Zealand's loss to England in the group stages of the Cricket World Cup will be to their advantage in Sunday's final.

The coaching maestro, who is bidding for a third rugby World Cup success with the All Blacks this year, said when teams play each other twice in a tournament it is a psychological disadvantage to win the first match.

"The advantage is held by the team that loses because I think mentally it's very hard not to subconsciously think, 'well, we've beaten these guys before', so you soften yourself a little bit, subconsciously, it's not a deliberate thing," he told Radio Sport on Saturday.

England beat New Zealand by 119 runs to make the semi-finals and then downed Australia by eight wickets to make the final.

New Zealand, who only scraped into the semis on a superior run rate than Pakistan, then beat tournament favourites India by 18 runs to reach the final "England played Australia (in the group stages) and Australia ...