Collingwood at a loss

9 February 2008

Paul Collingwood departs for 12 as England slip to a paltry 130 all out © Getty Images

England captain Paul Collingwood admitted it “didn’t happen” for his team as they lost the opening one-day international against New Zealand by six wickets in Wellington.

The tourists came into the series on the back of two Twenty20 international victories but struggled to get to grips with a turgid wicket at the Westpac Stadium and were bowled out for 130. Phil Mustard top-scored with 31 off 60 balls.

New Zealand secured victory with 20 overs to spare as Jesse Ryder hit 31 off 50 balls and fellow opener Brendon McCullum added a run-a-ball 42.

Collingwood could not hide his disappointment at a poor start to the five-match series, saying: “It’s been a good week for us with the Twenty20s and we came into this game full of confidence, and it didn’t really happen for us with the bat.

“It looked a nice hard wicket and it was pretty much the opposite. It was difficult to score on and they bowled and fielded very well.

“We didn’t get enough runs on the board. If we had got to 200 it might have been defendable, but we were always chasing the game.

“We got off to a decent start but from that point we didn’t get any kind of partnership going and they put us under a lot of pressure. It’s something we are going to have to talk about in the dressing room.

“When you lose three wickets to run-outs it’s disappointing - there was a bit of misunderstanding there - but their fielding was exceptional. They were diving around and getting to balls we didn’t think they were going to get to.

“We have had some great results in the one-day form of the game. We’ll put this to bed and hopefully do better next time.”

Owais Shah becomes the third England player to be run out

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Collingwood’s New Zealand counterpart Daniel Vettori was pleased to see his side respond to their Twenty20 setbacks in “emphatic fashion”.

“We made the most of the conditions,” he said. “We would have batted first and would have thought 230-240 would have been competitive, so to bowl them out for 130 was outstanding.

“England put the pressure on us (in the Twenty20 matches) but we flipped the script today and kept up the pressure and they couldn’t maintain partnerships through run-outs and good bowling.”

Chris Martin, who took two wickets for the Black Caps, felt his team had taken advantage of England’s failure to adapt to the wicket.

“The wicket gave them less pace to hit if you hit the lines and the lengths pretty well. They didn’t seem to have a plan B today.”

England pace bowler Stuart Broad, who took 3-26, tried to defend their shortcomings with the bat, which gave the attack little chance of forcing victory.

He said: “It was a difficult wicket to bat on. It stayed slow and I think 170 would have been quite competitive really.

“It wasn’t our day today but hopefully we will come out fighting,” he added, referring to the second match of the series in Hamilton on Tuesday."