England cannot live up to the hype: New Zealand claim dramatic one-day victory

New Zealand (182) beat England (160) by 22 runs

Teams capable of living up to the targets imposed on them by their bosses - in this case the England and Wales Cricket Board are insisting on a global one-day championship within the next two years - would have taken yesterday's match in their stride.

Under achievers: Paul Collingwood is out for 34, and with the skipper went his team¿s last chance of victory against New Zealand

After winning the toss on a lively pitch under grey humid skies, and reducing their opponents to 49-5, an England team really going places would have kept their boot firmly on the throat and finished New Zealand off before they managed to set any kind of total.

Even when setting about reaching a target of 183 for victory, an England team really going places would have kept their nerve, wickets intact and won in as many overs as it took, no matter how dull or painstaking.

In the event, this England team ended up looking like it was going nowhere. In truth, they were dead and buried well before Chris Tremlett was caught by Kiwi skipper Daniel Vettori to complete their dreadful innings of 160 all out.

Skipper Paul Collingwood was left with much to ponder, a year after his appointment to succeed Michael Vaughan following the catastrophe of the 2007 World Cup. In that tournament, England's defeat by New Zealand had such a sapping effect on their belief and confidence that their leading allrounder went out and got himself roaring drunk.

Not long afterwards Duncan Fletcher, the coach who helped them win the Ashes was gone. No one was tying up the pedalos in Bristol's docklands last night, but, with the series now at 1-1, you would not have blamed one or two for drowning their sorrows.

Eyes wide shut: Jamie How is bowled by England's Stuart Broad for 10

For, with the weather-ruined shambles of the second match at Edgbaston still too fresh in their memories, this defeat might represent an ultimately decisive shift in confidence and momentum with the final two matches this week.

Collingwood did his best to justify the compliments of his opposite number yesterday, dragging his reluctant team-mates away from the probability of an embarrassing defeat.

Asked to offer his thoughts on Collingwood's captaincy, Vettori gave him both barrels - of honey.

'Collingwood is one of the guys who leads from the front with bat and ball and in the field and always seems involved in the game,' said the Kiwi captain. 'I'm always drawn to the guys who lead by performance and Collingwood does that the majority of the time. As a captain, that reverberates throughout the side.'

Until he was out for 34 at 152-8, he was on course to do so here. Then Tim Southee, the 19-year-old fast bowler considered too raw to risk for the whole Test series, had him trapped plumb in front for his fourth wicket of the innings, the final decisive strike perfectly topping off his critical spell of three wickets for no runs in eight balls with which he ripped the heart out of England's batting.

When it was over, all England's pre-series talk of ruthlessness sounded horribly off-key.

Southee was quite brilliant with the ball, after 29-year-old Grant Elliott had offered a new slant on some of Geoffrey Boycott's criticisms of the current standard of this New Zealand side with the bat.

While the Kiwis were sliding to defeat in the second Test at Trent Bridge, the former England legend described some of their batsmen as 'club players'.

This time last week, Elliott was actually playing club cricket for Weybridge in the Surrey League.

An emergency call-up to replace the injured Jacob Oram, Elliott took 3-23 on his one-day debut at Edgbaston, and, without his top score of 56 here, New Zealand would not have got anywhere near the 182 which eventually posed such problems for England.

England: L J Wright, I R Bell, K P Pietersen, R S Bopara P D Collingwood (Capt), O A Shah, T R Ambrose (Wkt), G P Swann C T Tremlett, S C J Broad, J M Anderson.

New Zealand: J M How, B B McCullum, L R P L Taylor, S B Styris D R Flynn, G J Hopkins (Wkt), G D Elliott, D L Vettori (Capt) K D Mills, M R Gillespie, T G Southee.

England won toss and decided to field

Umpires: S J Davis and P J Hartley