England's usual one-day frailties were exposed again in Christchurch, as slow scoring, wayward bowling and calamitous fielding let New Zealand canter to a 3-1 series victory. In the end it was the rain that ended England's faint hopes, arriving with New Zealand 39 runs from victory but far clear on the Duckworth/Lewis method. But England only have themselves to blame after a batting performance that was merely dragged into respectability by Luke Wright and Dimitri Mascarenhas and a wretched first 10 overs from their attack that went for 96 and all but extinguished any hopes.
Daniel Vettori won the toss and unsurprisingly put England in. It was a slow-burning innings that only exploded into life at the very last moment to drag themselves to 242 for seven. Mascarenhas smashed a typical 29 from just 12 balls, including 22 from the very last over but it was Luke Wright who turned the innings on its head, hitting 47 from 40 deliveries.
Wright had come in with England struggling at 128 for five after a performance from the top order that was as soporific as the conclusion was sparky. England's top order were yet again bogged down by disciplined bowling; Vettori, the world's No1 one-day bowler, was almost unhittable, taking two for 28 in his 10 overs.
Alastair Cook and Ian Bell found it difficult to get going and were restricted to a handful of singles during the early overs, Bell registering England's first boundary in the seventh over. But after forging a 50 partnership in 12 overs, Bell attempted to up the pace and drove Mills to the debutant Daniel Flynn at long-off.
Kevin Pietersen arrived at the crease and immediately increased the urgency of the innings, but the introduction of Vettori's left-arm spin changed the momentum, trapping Cook lbw in his crease. The key dismissal of Pietersen came off Jeetan Patel's second ball when he advanced down the pitch and picked out Jesse Ryder at deep midwicket just as England wanted to accelerate. And so it was left to Wright and Mascarenhas to salvage a reasonable total which England's attack should have made more of.
After two tight overs that showed movement was there for England's bowlers, they soon lost their line and length, allowing Brendon McCullum to show the form that has earned him a $700,000 contract with the Indian Premier League. The opener hit six sixes, including three in three balls off James Anderson, to destroy the England attack. With McCullum in charge, Anderson's dire first four overs went for 45. Ryder was reduced to virtual spectator as his partner sprayed England's bowlers around the ground and when he was run out for 24 in the 12th over New Zealand had already reached 103. McCullum was finally bowled by Collingwood for 77 off 43 balls trying for another big pull but by that time the damage had been done.
Jamie How and Ross Taylor slowly kept the score ticking over before How fell for 24 to Sidebottom. Scott Styris then made a conservative 25 before Anderson had him caught at mid-on by Stuart Broad. England saw a chink of light in the next over as Sidebottom, who along with Collingwood was the only England bowler to emerge with any credit, took the wickets of Flynn and Jacob Oram in two balls but the rains soon came and England didn't get the opportunity to complete another comeback. After being outplayed for much of the day, and indeed the series, it would perhaps have been more than England deserved.
As ever, the England coach Peter Moores tried to put a positive slant on things. "We would have liked to have won, especially after the two Twenty20s," he said. "But we have been forming a one-day team over the last nine months and no one said it is going to be easy. We have played them seven times, the Twenty20s and the ODIs and we have won three each.
"We are building a team and had a great series win in Sri Lanka after a win over India. The key is we keep moving forward and find areas to improve. We are prepared to work hard."
Vettori said: "It gives us momentum [going into the Test series] but they will make quite a few changes. They are a very good Test team and we haven't been for a good while."
