New Zealand call the tune

12 February 2008 | By Justin Goulding

Jesse Ryder pulls for four as New Zealand race towards their target of 165 © Getty Images

As the theme tune from Coronation Street blasted out of the speakers following Graeme Swann’s dismissal in Hamilton, England fans could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching a repeat.

The tourists were on the verge of being bowled out for another meagre total, and a second resounding defeat in four days was confirmed barely a couple of hours later.

Where New Zealand triumphed by six wickets in Wellington on Saturday, they romped home by 10 wickets in the second one-day international at Seddon Park, overhauling a Duckworth-Lewis-revised target of 165 in 18.1 of their 36 permitted overs.

As at the Westpac Stadium, England’s worryingly fragile batting was at the root of their demise. In being dismissed for 158, they wasted the platform created by a solid opening partnership again; once more they failed to use their full allocation of overs; and the innings contained another three run-outs.

The manner in which Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder went about savaging the England bowlers - they smashed 80 off 47 balls and 79 off 62 balls respectively - suggested no total would have been beyond them.

That, however, will be of little comfort to England captain Paul Collingwood as he contemplates how to overturn a 2-0 deficit with three games remaining in the five-match series.

The irony that England were undermined by a rain delay in a region that is in the midst of a drought is unlikely to be appreciated by the players.

Michael Mason celebrates the wicket of Kevin Pietersen after the rain break © Getty Images

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England scored 85 runs and lost two wickets in the 15 overs possible before an interruption of almost two and a half hours. They managed 73 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 19 overs thereafter.

Alastair Cook top-scored with 53, while Daniel Vettori, Chris Martin and Michael Mason each took two wickets. But the bowling honours went to Jacob Oram, who conceded just 12 runs in seven overs and ran out Collingwood.

England's post-rain travails contrasted sharply with the freedom with which they scored early in their innings.

Cook was the chief aggressor in an opening stand of 41, although Phil Mustard pulled Martin for six the ball before he drilled a low catch to mid-off.

If Daniel Vettori made a sharp chance look easy, wicketkeeper McCullum bettered it seconds later. Ian Bell, in attempting to withdraw his bat to a short-of-a-length Martin delivery that climbed outside off stump, could only divert it off the face, and McCullum leapt high to his right to pluck the ball out of the air one-handed.

Kevin Pietersen looked in fine touch before the rain came, only to fall leg before aiming across the line for 29 in the second over after the resumption.

Collingwood was beaten by Oram’s superb throw from third man as he went in search of a second run off the first ball he faced, Owais Shah was bowled by a Mason off-cutter and Ravi Bopara called Cook for a single that was never on.

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Swann’s dismissal - caught behind cutting at Vettori - was the cue for the DJ to indulge soap-lovers in the crowd, and England’s hopes of a competitive score disappeared when Bopara flicked a Kyle Mills full toss tamely to deep midwicket.

Scott Styris’ direct hit from short fine leg accounted for Ryan Sidebottom, and Stuart Broad’s resistance - he hit two fours and a six in his 23 before being held by a diving Mills in the deep - did little more than add a veneer of respectability to the total.

New Zealand's innings was a brutal exhibition of strokeplay, no better example being McCullum's hooked six off James Anderson as he advanced down the track to the pace bowler. His fifty occupied just 27 deliveries.

He cleared the rope on a further four occasions to complement the eight fours he hit, and any sense of relief the England attack may have felt when he was not on strike was minimal as man of the match Ryder also unveiled his full repertoire.

Broad and Sidebottom were both dispatched for three fours in an over as Ryder demonstrated his fondness for the short ball, and the exemplary running between the wickets further underlined the quality of his partnership with McCullum, the highest for New Zealand’s first wicket against England in one-day internationals.

Though both batsmen were dropped - McCullum by Mustard before he had scored, Ryder on nine by Shah at slip and again by Sidebottom in his follow-through when the result was beyond doubt - no-one can begrudge them their record.

Nor can anybody claim that New Zealand did not deserve this utterly comprehensive victory.