Broad highlights England's pressure points after another one-day failure

Broad smiles: the England paceman can take heart from his own rich vein of form despite England¿s one-day blues

Daniel Vettori’s Black Caps had been on their knees at 49 for five and 75 for six as Broad and Co turned the screw in the morning,but a half-century from Grant Elliott and a thunderous onslaught from Kyle Mills, who made 47, dragged them to 182 in

their 50 overs. That modest total proved sufficient as England fell apart — at one stage losing four wickets for just two runs in 19 deliveries.

Although captain Paul Collingwood and Graeme Swann conjured a defiant partnership of 65, New Zealand were not to be denied.

Vettori, who took the final catch to see off Chris Tremlett, was ecstatic as his team drew level at 1-1 in the series with two games to play.

The fact that England caved in with such a low target to chase will have alarmed Collingwood and coach Peter Moores. Broad tried to get to the root cause of the problem by frequently mentioning the P-word.

‘We’re pretty downbeat,’ said the Nottinghamshire fast bowler.

‘Cricket is a pressure game. We just didn’t cope with the pressure we were put under. You would expect to chase 180 on most international wickets.

‘Once we took a few early wickets, they couldn’t release the pressure. The same happened to us — we lost a couple of wickets so we couldn’t really take risks. They kept putting us under pressure and we didn’t handle that very well. We didn’t get a
good enough start and we lost wickets at crucial times. We had a little collapse and we didn’t bat well.’

It would appear England have reverted to type in their blend of Test prowess and one-day frailty, bearing in mind that only rain and red-tape prevented a likely defeat at Edgbaston in the previous match. Last year, the national team bucked their own
age-old trend by losing Test series against India and Sri Lanka, but taking the limited overs spoils. However, this year’s clashes, home and away, with the Kiwis have followed the old pattern; five-day joy and 50-over pain.

At least Broad could reflect with pride on his own performance. He clean bowled both Jamie How and Ross Taylor, the latter with a laser-guided yorker after he had driven him to distraction with a relentless off-stump line.

‘It’s pleasing that I was able to keep it pretty tight,’ he said. ‘I’ve been allowed to hit my natural length and I’ve proved pretty difficult to hit. I’m in a good rhythm at the moment. All bowlers go through phases when you feel the ball is coming out right and you know exactly where you’re putting it.

‘It’s nice to be bowling well but it doesn’t stop the work, I’ve got to keep improving and developing. There’s a long way for me to go and I’m still only 21.’

There is a long way to go for the whole team on this evidence, at least in a batting sense. Luke Wright suffered a false start to his latest shock-and-awe assault, while Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell succumbed to soft dismissals, although they have been pulling their weight of late.

Ravi Bopara had done the initial hard work before cutting loosely to backward point, while teenager Tim Southee produced sufficient zip and lateral movement to get nicks from Owais Shah and wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose, who is in urgent need of a score to justify his place ahead of Matt Prior.

Just a week ago, England had their feet on Kiwi throats. The New Zealanders looked like beaten men, longing for home. Now they are revived and imbued with renewed purpose.

As Broad succinctly put it: ‘We’ve given them a sniff.’