England face battle to avoid defeat

Convincing victories in both Twenty20 Internationals had established England as strong favourites for the start of the five-match series, but instead they were left floundering against a New Zealand side galvanised by the return of captain Daniel Vettori from injury.

The tourists struggled throughout their innings on a two-paced pitch, hitting only seven boundaries with opener Phil Mustard top-scoring with a patient 31 off 60 balls.

England had surprisingly made two changes from their winning line-up by recalling Essex pair Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara to keep faith with the side which exceeded expectations by winning in Sri Lanka last October.

But the changes backfired with England subdued from the start on a pitch where they became increasingly frustrated by their failure to score more boundaries, suffering three run-outs as a result.

The top four batsmen were all bowled by deliveries which either seamed or suffered variations of bounce and left England attempting to rebuild the innings at 67 for four.

Instead of rebuilding, however, England suffered two key run-outs with captain Paul Collingwood falling just after the halfway point of the innings following a mix-up with Owais Shah, who later fell in similar fashion.

England were left to bat with the tail in the final 10 overs after the departures of Ravi Bopara, Shah and Graeme Swann, who was also run out.

The tourists were restricted to only 23 runs at a time when normally they would have looked to enjoy some of their most profitable overs leaving England requiring a remarkable bowling display to prevent a convincing defeat.