Cricket: England Have Only Themselves To Blame for Defeat

On a horrible, gloomy day, England and New Zealand served up a miserably turgid game to match the weather.

England won the toss and elected to bowl on what was quite clearly a bowlers wicket; hard and covered with patches of grass it promised a lot of bounce and irregular movement.

Bowling first proved to be the correct decision it seemed as New Zealand's top five batsmen were all back in the pavilion with just 49 runs on the board, and when captain Vettori was dismissed, the team stood on the brink at 110 for 7.

Whilst the conditions clearly were a factor, it seemed that the fear of the ball doing something unexpected affected the batsmen more than what the ball actually did.

Jamie How, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Flynn, Gareth Hopkins and Dan Vettori all got out playing shots they either need not have played or shots they could have played better.

All that was needed was good concentration and a lot of grit.

Grant Elliott provided this; by no means the most talented player in the New Zealand squad, he top scored with 56 from 102 balls, finding the rope only three times. 

Without his sensible batting New Zealand would have crumbled and been dismissed for around 125.

But by batting through, he not only added valuable runs himself, but allowed Kyle Mills to go on and blast 47 from 40 balls in the closing stages.

It wasn't attractive to watch, but it got New Zealand up to a more respectable score of 182.

However, it must be said that this score was only achieved following growing complacency in the field from England. There were a number of misfields, bad deliveries and general mistakes which took the pressure of New Zealand somewhat.

The best teams are ruthless, they don't let teams scratch their way out of enormous holes as England did in the field today.

Nevertheless, England were very much favourites to chase this relatively low score down though.

Luke Wright was never going to be a factor in an attritional game such as this, and sure enough he went for just 2 in the first over playing a horrible and unnecessary shot.

Kevin Pietersen soon followed, he got himself out with a tame chip shot to Grant Elliott. Ravi Bopara was, in fairness, dismissed by an excellent catch, although his 27 had been somewhat fortuitous.

But this didn't matter. England were 62 for 3 with Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood at the crease.

The situation was tailor made for Bell to prove himself.

He looked comfortable. He looked calm. He looked set.

As an grinding, accumulative test batsman, his style was suited to the conditions and the position England found themselves in.

Could he handle the pressure, and for the first time in his career produce the match winning innings?

No.

On 20, he swung loosely at a ball which would have been called a wide, and chipped it up to McCullum.

Owais Shah was then dismissed, caught off a very good Southee delivery for 0. Tim Ambrose followed four balls later for 0, attempting to play the cut shot (his only shot) to a ball which bounced to high to be cut.

Collingwood offered some resistance, but when he was dismissed for 34 the game was up.

England went on to lose by 22 runs.

Yes, the conditions played a part, the New Zealand bowlers bowled adequately, but the batsmen simply threw their wickets away. If England has applied themselves to their batting in the same fashion as Grant Elliott had, there would have been no problem. Surely they could see this?

Ian Bell was the key, for me, there is no excuse for his abysmal dismissal for 20 and no excuse for his not adding a match winning score. That is not to let the other batsmen off the hook, they were all severely disappointing today. 

England can blame no one but themselves for this defeat, they threw the match away after New Zealand looked to have lost it in the first hour.