Kevin Pietersen is backing England to ensure a happy homecoming for him at Kingsmead today by claiming a crucial victory over New Zealand to stay on course for the ICC World Twenty20 semi-finals.

Successive defeats to Australia and South Africa have deflated the optimism from when England arrived a week ago, fresh from their outstanding NatWest Series triumph over India.

It has left them needing victory in their final two matches against New Zealand today and India tomorrow to be sure of qualification for the last four this weekend.

On current form, an England win seems unlikely having struggled throughout Sunday's 19-run defeat by the hosts while New Zealand began their Super Eights campaign with an emphatic win over India.

But as Pietersen prepares to play his first international innings at his former home ground at Kingsmead, he is confident England can respond to the crisis by producing a performance in front of his family.

''It is a day when we all need to turn up and function at 100per cent,'' stressed Pietersen, England's best batsman so far in the competition.

''There's nothing we can do to change what happened against Australia and South Africa, but hopefully there are a few guys who have learnt from their mistakes, we can build on that and give New Zealand a real run for their money - I'm sure the guys will turn up hungry to win because if we lose then we're off.''

Since their arrival in South Africa, England only have a win over Zimbabwe to show for their efforts while their spirits were further damaged by wicketkeeper Matt Prior suffering a blow to his right thumb which may force him to miss the game.

Vikram Solanki is favourite to take over should Prior fail his fitness test, but Pietersen is refusing to allow injury concerns deflect him from keeping England in the tournament.

''What we need to do now is win four games and if we do that we win the tournament.'' he stressed. ''We came into this tournament straight off an aeroplane and two days later we played Zimbabwe and three days after that we played the world champions.

''It's been a pretty tough start for us - in seven days we've played No 1 and 2 in the world and unfortunately been on the receiving end.''

England may not have been in this situation had Pietersen not been run out in controversial circumstances when he collided with Shaun Pollock attempting a quick single for 15 and was unable to regain his ground.

Some believe Pollock may have deliberately blocked off his path to the crease, but Pietersen claimed: ''I've seen it now on replays several times and it looks like Polly got in my way and people may say it looks deliberate but I know Shaun and he's not that kind of cricketer.

''Not for one second did I think he obstructed me."