Preamble: After taking New Zealand apart as easy as can be in the Twenty20s, England's new look one day side suffered a defeat of Fletcheresque proportions in Wellington. A blip that'll only make this five match series all the more interesting or a sign that this team isn't improving like we'd thought? Well most still think it's the former but there's only one way to find out: brew yourself a Horlicks (other reassuringly malty drinks are available), wipe the sleep from your eyes and phone in sick for tomorrow, we're pulling an all-nighter. I will be taking you through the first innings from Hamilton and fresh as a daisy for the second innings will be Lawrence Booth.
The Toss Flip and up and spin and down and Paul Collingwood calls heads and it falls... tails. Daniel Vettori puts England in and Collingwood agrees he would have probably done the same. Can England better the weekend's target of 130? I'd imagine so, this pitch won't hold quite the same problems... maybe.
The teams you say?
England
Alastair Cook, Phil Mustard (wk), Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood (capt), Owais Shah, Ravi Bopara, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson
New Zealand Jesse Ryder, Brendon McCullum (wk), Jamie How, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Peter Fulton, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori (capt), Kyle Mills, Michael Mason, Chris Martin
So England are sticking with the same bunch, despite Peter Moores talk about his possible team selection errors in the lead up, while New Zealand bring in medium-pacer Michael Mason for Jeetan Patel, quicker wicket and all that. Ian Botham is confident that if England can post a good total the ball should swing under the lights and, in short, it is no bad thing that they are batting first.
"I've always been amused by the Green Army," writes Marie Meyer, referring to the jim-jams that Tom Lutz said I would be wearing for tonight's festivities. "Partly because your badge celebrates people who left the town and never came back. But mostly because Plymouth is a long, long way from Argyle. Actually, it's quite a way from anywhere. What chance you getting into the top flight and thereby inconveniencing some spoiled Premiership gazillionares next year?" In a word: none, sorry Marie. In fact, with things going like they are we might well be better off out of the whole money-hungery debacle.
1st over: England 3-0 (Cook 3, Mustard 0) Razorlight boom over the Tannoy to get us going, or in honour of the Hawley Arms maybe, before Kyle Mills starts us off. Cook defends the first few before Mills gets an inswinger to strike him on the pads, it is very, very close but perhaps drifting down leg. Perhaps. Cook gets it away for one off the next and breaths a sigh of relief. Mustard digs out a yorker to end the over. The pitch looks nice enough so far. Meanwhile, Stephen Bowden has a cryptic prediction: "Based on the weather this morning in Hamilton - a good toss to win (or not lose in this case)." I'm not so sure Stephen, I think England will post a nice total here.
2nd over: England 8-0 (Cook 7, Mustard 0) Chris Martin coming around the wicket and he gives Cook some width. Cook just has to lean back and cut it away for four, nice enough shot. Martin jags one in and it deflects away for a leg-bye and England manage to complete a tight run.
3rd over: England 18-0 (Cook 15, Mustard 2) A ball just back of a length and Cook dispatches it through the covers, a lovely cricket shot as they say in better schools than I went to. Then he gets a bit over-excited and swings and misses the next. But he makes up for it with a drive through the covers for his third boundary off the next ball. Calm and collected cricket should be fine on this wicket, pick off the bad balls and don't try anything too flashy, suits Cook perfectly.
4th over: England 21-0 (Cook 16, Mustard 2) Phil Mustard takes a single to leg off the first ball and Cook leaves the rest of the over before taking a single off the last. A very harsh wide in amongst that, if that's the marker Anderson is in trouble later on. "Is Cook one of England's best XI ODI players?" Asks Gary Naylor rhetorically. "For a sheet anchor, one fifty and one ton in 17 knocks isn't enough. He wastes the powerplays and he's a camel in the field. On the other hand he's an FEC. Let's get Ravi or Shah opening and Dimi in at 7." On a bad day I would agree Gary but this wicket is perfect for him so let's see what he can do today, he's looked good so far.
5th over: England 33-0 (Cook 26, Mustard 6) Mills strays onto Cook's pads and it is driven straight back past him for four. Mustard then skips back to make some room for himself and hoists the ball over long off for a one bounce four, pinch-hitting in action. A few more off the last couple of balls and it all looks good for England so far. They hit six boundaries in Wellington, they have five already today.
WICKET! Mustard c Vettori b Martin 13 (41-1) A single to start from Mustard and then a fielding mix-up allows another single off the next. Then a short one in on Mustard and he pulls it up, up and away for six. Next ball he off-drives off the backfoot powerfully but it is straight into the hands of Daniel Vettori at mid-off. Just as he was getting going. New Zealand will be relieved about that and it is game on as they say in in the US of States.
WICKET! Bell c Vettori b Martin 0 (41-2) First ball and Bell edges to McCullum who claims it at full-stretch a wonderful diving catch. Unbelievable catch. Martin is on a hat-trick but Pietersen gets a single off his first.
7th over: England 46-2 (Cook 26, Pietersen 5) Pretty poor appeals for an unlikely LBW on Pietersen. He plays himself in before driving driving the final ball of the over straight down the ground for four. Lovely stuff.
8th over: England 49-2 (Cook 26, Pietersen 7) Martin gets one up around Pietersen's jaw and he manages to hook away awkwardly, just evading the diving short mid-wicket. Martin is making it very uncomfortable for the English batsmen. Meanwhile, greetings from the other side of the world: "Happy days for cricket fans Down Under, Josh. On the one hand, we've got India and Sri Lanka here in Australia, trying to take the hosts' position at the top of the one day cricket pile. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the Poms and Kiwis do battle to see sits at the other end of the spectrum. It's tense, fascinating stuff here in Oz, while we get some comedic relief from the other side of the Tasman. The perfect balance," says William Sinclair. It's actually been pretty high quality from both sides in Hamilton so far, so less of the desparaging comments William.
9th over: England 51-2 (Cook 27, Pietersen 7) Michael Mason is on for Mills and a couple of singles are the cost of his first over. Maybe this is a chance for me to ask my Kiwi readers why when I was on the Circle Line on Saturday at about three in the afternoon my carriage filled up with the partying, hugely drunken population of New Zealand from Victoria to Westminster? Were they that pleased with the victory in the first game?
10th over: England 67-2 (Cook 29, Pietersen 21) Pietersen top edges a pull shot and it flies over everyone's head for six, on any other day that would have been out. Lucky boy. For his next trick he drives beautifully through the covers for four. And to finish off it's another four, a half-volley driven down the ground.
11th over: England 73-2 (Cook 30, Pietersen 26) Vettori takes the second power-play with it nicely poised so far. Pietersen drives back down the ground very straight, with his elbow higher than the sky commentary box, which is appaently giving Athers vertigo.
12th over: England 75-2 (Cook 31, Pietersen 26) Martin on for his sixth over and Pietersen takes a single off the first ball. But that's about that as Martin keeps it angling in awkwardly for Cook, who has gone quiet since Pietersen joined him in the middle. William Sinclair's Kiwi bashing of the 8th over hasn't gone down too well with Jeremy Theobald: "Perhaps if William Sinclair knew a little more about cricket, he'd realise that the Kiwis are third in the world rankings, above both India and Sri Lanka," and he seems to speak for a lot of you embittered souls. Looks like rain might be on the horizon.
13th over: England 76-2 (Cook 32, Pietersen 26) Cook takes a single down to third man and Pietersen leaves all but the last which he clips off his legs for a single. Meanwhile William Sinclair is endearing himself further to readers: "I assume they were just celebrating the fact they no longer live in New Zealand," he says referring to my train journey of the 9th over. Oh dear William, no need for that. Now let's all shake hands and be friends, anyone see Skins?
14th over: England 81-2 (Cook 36, Pietersen 29) Oram comes on for the impressive Martin and Pietersen skips down the wicket to the first ball and it strikes him on his pads. A strong appeal but he was far too far down the wicket to be really worried. Meanwhile, Cook plays and misses to one that moves away off the seam before getting one through the covers for a few, a misfield helping him out.
15th over: England 85-2 (Cook 40, Pietersen 29) Rain stops play! Cook rocks back on his heel and pulls away through the covers. It's a catchable height and there are a few shouts but Scott Styrus is nowhere near it in truth, four runs it is then. Gower is now the one complaining about his commentary box in the sky but there are bigger concerns as the rain comes and umpires call the players off at the end of the over. Oh dear. Gower thinks it's a passing shower, Ian Smith is not so sure. I'll keep you updated.
Weather watch It's still raining I'm afraid, no further news than that. Sky have cut to a look back at the 2002 Ashes series with Michael Vaughan, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussein and Alec Stewart as the talking heads. Annoyingly I've seen it before at some previous point in my life when I had nothing better to do than wait for the rain to stop .
About 40 minutes... maybe If it doesn't rain anymore that is. Cross those fingers. I have had some emails, sadly with my policy not to print anymore disparaging comments about New Zealand, Australia and William Sinclair in particular - for fear of causing the first full-scale over-by-over war - I cannot use many recent ones. But back in the day when there was still cricket to watch Gary Naylor wrote: "Here's the great chronicler of the urban underbelly Donald Fagan with his take on the all-night shift - listen and enjoy." It's not just sport he knows far too much about. But is this really the best music for a nightshift? Anyone?
The covers are back on That's all I have to offer but it doesn't take Suzanne Charlton to tell you that isn't a good sign. Is she still in work? I haven't seen her on the box in years.
A couple of emails: "The partying, hugely drunken population of New Zealand were probably celebrating Waitangi day in early February, a public holiday celebrating our coming of age as a nation," explains David Hagland, showing up my patchy knowledge of national holidays. "Or perhaps celebrating Warren Gatlands victory over English rugger." Either way, did they have to be quite so rowdy David?
"I hate to rain on your parade," arfs Laurence Davison. "But I suspect this interruption may be the first of many in this series. It has been bucketting down here in Sydney for most of the past two months (this week has been the first respite for a while) and my NZ sources say it's been a similar situation in a lot of their towns too. There's a climatic situation in the Pacific that's going to bring lots and lots of rain up till April apparently. Enjoy the late, pointless, nights." That's the spirit.
3.50am GMT update The sun is out! The covers are still on but the umpires and the New Zealand team are out on the pitch. No exact news from the middle though.
Restart: The resumption will be at about 4.30am GMT, that's 5.30pm Hamilton time. It will probably be about 36 overs a side. I'll keep you posted.
Some more emails "85-2 from 15 overs? 85-2? Clearly fantastic captaincy (and weather forecasting) from England. Pesky Hamilton weather," complains Sean Boiling, forgetting that New Zealand won the toss.
And Mark Longley, Thom James and Alan Goodwin all email to tell me that Laurence Davison is wrong about the terrible New Zealand weather and it has been beautiful for the last month or so in NZ. I'm not going to argue, stuck in dark and lonely Farringdon as I am.
Take your seats Here we go again with both teams restricted to 36 overs each and New Zealand's target adjusted using the Duckworth/Lewis method.
16th over: England 85-2 (Cook 40, Pietersen 29) Oram to Pietersen and it's a few dots including a yorker dug out safely to get us going. First maiden of the innings.
WICKET! Pietersen LBW b Mason 29 (90-3) Cook gets an edge looking to drive through extra cover but there is no slip and the ball races away for four. The next ball gets a shout for LBW but it got an inside edge and a single is taken. Pietersen shuffles across to the next ball and it strikes him firmly on the pad, Baxter's finger in straight up and New Zealand have an early breakthrough after the rain.
WICKET! Collingwood (run out 1) (91-4) Another disasterous run out for England. Collingwood edges his first ball past gully, for some reason they decide to take a second and Oram hurls it powerfully back to McCullum to get Collingwood by a distance. Oh dear. Shah, who can't of expected to be out here this soon, bats out the rest of the over.
18th over: England 96-4 (Cook 41, Shah 0) Cook gets an inside edge but it eludes McCullum and runs down for four. For some reason Rauf gives it as byes, that was a huge edge, how did he miss that? Cook then floats a drive over the in-field for a single. This partnership is key for England now, they suddenly find themselves in a very tough position.
WICKET! Shah (b Mason) (97-5) A single off the first ball from Cook and Shah scampers home. He then gets an edge onto his pads which Mason can barely be bothered to appeal for, but does anyway. Then a vicious inswinger goes through the gate and cracks the off-stump out of the ground and England are in real trouble. A wide down the leg side and scampered single from Bopara bring an end to the over.
20th over: England 101-5 (Cook 41, Bopara 2) Oram darts the ball in to Bopara who is shuffling across and there is a huge appeal but it looks to have got an inside edge. Cook then sends Bopara back on a single and he has to dive back into his ground. Nasser has pointed out that Bopara has a new bat and shoes, saying changing your kit is a sign of his lack of form. Maybe it is just his birthday.
21st over: England 105-5 (Cook 47, Bopara 9) Bopara drives and gets an outside edge. It goes through the air but evades everyone and away for four. He then clips a single off his ankles and Cook drives a wide one for another to bring an end to the over as England try to rebuild.
22nd over: England 107-5 (Cook 49, Bopara 9) Cook walks across to Oram and edges the ball down to fine leg for a single and that's about it. Vettori is toying over who fifth bowler to bring on, Styris or himself the leading contenders. "A fantastic start, a break, followed by all out collapse. Are the cricket team on the same diet as the rugby team? Or do they share psychotherapists?" Asks Richard Clayton.
23rd over: England 108-5 (Cook 50, Bopara 0) Chris Martin is back on as New Zealand search for another wicket. Cook brings up his fifty with a single to mid-on and he will need to go on from that if England are set a good total. Martin bounces one and Bopara flails wildly at a hook, missing it completely. Bopara works the final ball down to third man and there's two off the over.
24th over: England 112-5 (Cook 53, Bopara 9) Vettori brings himself on and finds his length straight away. The England pair hesitate on a run, Patel fumbles, throws and misses. Could well have been another run out there. Better running gets Cook a couple off the final ball. Vettori is ranked the second best one-day bowler in the world behind Shane Bond. So that's essentially number one then.
25th over: England 112-5 (Cook 54, Bopara 11) England can't get Martin away here, Bopara gets an edge down to third man for one and Cook works a single off his legs. Bopara adds a final single off Martin's last ball. He finishes with figures of 8-0-44-2. He got eight overs meaning no other bowler is allowed more than seven under the new restrictions.
WICKET! Cook Run out (Taylor) (121-6) Bopara leans back and leaves it late to cut Vettori for four, the first boundary in quite a while. Then they try to take a single and there is huge hesitation but Bopara goes anyway, leaving Cook stranded and facing England's fifth run out in an innings and a half. Embarresing really. That was Bopara's fault and Vettori seems to thank him for it as he walks past to congratulate Taylor.
27th over: England 124-6 (Bopara 20, Swann 1) Styris is on and there's a single off the over as England stagnate, unsurprisingly I suppose.
WICKET! Swann c McCullum b Vettori (126-7) Bopara chips it just short of mid-off to vain shouts of 'catch it!'. Vettori then has a good shout for LBW on Swann that would be plum if it wasn't for the huge inside edge. Next ball Swann needlessly tries to cut and gets an edge straight through to McCullum and this has been nothing short of terrible from England since the resumption. Broad defends out the rest of the over.
29th over: England 131-7 (Bopara 21, Broad 4) Well these two have of course produced a miracle before, chasing down 100-odd against India at Old Trafford last year. But there's not much they can do here, is there? A high elbowed, backfooted drive that shows Broad has a bit to offer with the bat gets three down the ground. A couple of singles to add to it make it five off the over. "What on Earth? How is this happening? How can we can turn 85-2 from 15 into 121-6 from 25?" Asks Sean Boiling, well I'm not too sure myself Sean.
30th over: England 136-7 (Bopara 23, Broad 8) Broad plays forward to Vettori and it goes past the edge. McCullum is up and appealing with glee but a shake of the head from Rauf. Broad then gets down and sweeps for four, another lovely stroke. Broad then sends Bapara back on a too-tight-for-comfort single and his almost goes over but scrambles back. Another close one.
WICKET! Swann c Ryder b Mills (142-8) Broad catches a bottom edge on a hook and it tootles down for four to very fine leg, that's three boudaries for him out there so far. He plays another off his back foot for a comfortable single bringing Bopara onto strike. A full toss from Mills is then dispatched away into the deep but he manages to pick out the only fielder and it is back to the dressing room for him. Mills bounces the final ball of the over to Broad and he hooks it casually away for six. What a shot.
32nd over: England 149-8 (Broad 19, Sidebottom 1) Sidebottom takes a single and Vettori ties Broad down for the rest of the over, just one off it.
33rd over: England 151-8 (Broad 20, Sidebottom 2) Oram's back on, his five overs so far having gone for just six. Sidebottom deflects him away for a single down the leg side and England bring up the 150. Broad then takes another single down to third man. England just trying to play out the overs here, three to go.
WICKET! Sidebottom Run out (Styris) (152-9) Vettori is still on and he beats Broad's outside edge with an arm ball, Broad couldn't look more uncomfortable facing the New Zealand captain. Broad sweeps the ball down to Styris at fine leg, looping up and landing just in front of him. They try to take a sneaky single, Sidebottom dallying looking like he thinks it will be caught and he's way out of his ground as the ball is returned to McCullum. Three run outs in the innings.
35th over: England 158-9 (Broad 23, Anderson 2) Broad takes a single to mid on off Oram to move onto 22, a rare ray of light for England. Anderson then drives past backward point, How driving full length for the catch but unable to quite make it and they run two. Full credit on a spectacular dive though. A couple of well-taken singles (no, really) bring the over to an end and Oram has bowled his seven overs for just 12.
WICKET! Broad 22 c How b Vettori (158 all out) Vettori comes on for the final over and Broad tries to hoik the first ball over mid off and gets height but no distance on it. How runs across and catches it with a full length dive, even more impressive than his dive in the previous over. And that's it. England came back from the rain at 85-2 and proceded to collapse to 158. Still, all is not lost, join Lawrence Booth to see if they can redeem themselves in the field. I'm off to bed, cheers for all your emails, the company was much appreciated.
