Paul Collingwood has been banned for four limited-overs internationals and could face a fight to regain the one-day captaincy.

Collingwood will miss the NatWest series decider against New Zealand at Lord's and then, in August, a 50-over match with Scotland, plus a Twenty20 game and the first of five full internationals against South Africa after being held responsible for England's slow over-rate at The Oval yesterday.

The all-rounder's suspension is likely to mean Kevin Pietersen will lead England on Saturday, although the selectors could decide to recall Andrew Strauss to the squad and ask him to take over.

As for Collingwood, today's judgement - handed down by International Cricket Council match referee Javagal Srinath - completed a desperate 24 hours.

His team played poorly to lose a second consecutive match, and leave New Zealand with a 2-1 series lead, while he was roundly criticised for failing to withdraw a run-out appeal after Kiwi all-rounder Grant Elliott had collided with bowler Ryan Sidebottom.

Collingwood later apologised to the tourists, but there is sure to be an extra edge to Saturday's showdown, even though initially furious New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori hoped the two teams could put the incident behind them.

The Durham man, though, can neither put right yesterday's wrong nor do anything about the fact he has become the first England player to be banned since the ICC introduced it's code of conduct in 1992. It wasCollingwood's second offence as he was also captain when England were badly behind the clock against India in August.

Coach Peter Moores defended Collingwood over the Elliott incident, insisting: "I don't think it has damaged his captaincy. It takes quite a big bloke to do what he did [admit a mistake]."

But someone else now has the chance to lead the side - and make a success of it.