Match Report: England Vs New Zealand, 5th ODI (Lords)

New Zealand and Daniel Vettori have today completed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes on their tour of England, having totally outplayed their opponents to bounce back from a drubbing at Durham to clinch the Natwest trophy 3-1. 

At one stage, it looked like England would manage to cross the finish line, as Bell and Cook added 53 runs for the first wicket.  Bell in particular looked in fine form, on-driving with textbook class.  But as is so often the case with England at the minute, the two players got themselves in and then got themselves out; Bell moved across his stumps to paddle a Gillespie delivery to the on-side but was caught plumb lbw, whilst Cook misjudged a delivery angled across him by Southee and nicked a thin edge to the wicketkeeper, McCullum.  From the good position of 53/0 from 11 overs in pursuit of 267, England found themselves in the position of 60/2.  Then out strode England's stand-in captain, Kevin Pietersen.  The crowd errupted with expectant excitement, but all Pietersen could do was scratch around for 39 uncomfortable balls before being caught at point by Oram for 6.  From there, England continued to lose wickets at regular intervals with nearly all the batsmen being culpable for their downfalls.  None more so than Bopara, who played a quite ugly "shot" against Vettori.  No one really seems to know what Bopara was trying to do - and I'd wager even Bopara doesn't know - but he found himself in a bit of a tangle as he watched his middle stump get knocked back.  Only Shah kept his cool to make a good 69 from 75, whilst wickets tumbled regularly at the other end.

Earlier on in the day, Pietersen won the toss and elected to field first.  To his credit, his captaincy was bold and decicive if at times a little naïve - only he will know why he bowled Shah for three overs.  Anderson, Sidebottom and Broad were tight and disciplined in the first part of New Zealand's innings, picking up 3 wickets inside 20 overs, including the vital wickets of McCullum and Taylor.  However, England in the field were not as tight and energetic as they should have been, with catches dropped and run out opportunities missed.

But credit must go to New Zealand's batsmen, who went about business in an "old fashioned" ODI sort of way.  Scott Styris (87* from 91 balls) played the quintessentially ODI innings by starting slow, laying a foundation and then accelerating at the end.  He and Oram (52 from 40) added 77 runs for the 5th wicket in just 12 overs.  Elliot and Styris then added 65 runs from the last 6 overs.  This final burst really cost England dear, but to be fair their bowling in the last 10-15 overs was quite dreadful.  Jack Russell was asked in the BBC TMS box in the 4th ODI how many yorkers per over he wanted his bowlers to bowl at the death.  "At least four or five" came the forthright reply.  In this game, England barely bowled one an over and that failure to stick it in the block hole ultimately allowed New Zealand to get 20 or 30 more runs in the closing overs than they might overwise have got.

So New Zealand have salvaged something from this tour and have learned a lot about their youngsters Grant Elliot and Tim Southee, who incidentally, was the man-of-the-series having picked up 13 wickets.  They recovered incredibly well and once again highlighted their one day credentials, having bounced back after losing the test series and consecutive drubbings in the Twenty20 and the first ODI.  England by contrast seem none the wiser as to who their best one day team is.  Wright started the series opening and finished in the middle order.  Mascarenhas was tried and dumped, Bell was infuriatingly intent on chucking his wicket away just as he was getting himself in and the bowling lacks that little bit of bite and penetration.  Only Shah and Broad have acquitted themselves.  England must now do some serious thinking and come up with a formula that will work for them.  In particular, the search for a genuine 5th bowler must continue as bits-and-pieces cricketers are never going to be incisive with the ball or destructive withthe bat.