Ben Hollioake predicted yesterday that England would win this series 3-2. Today, he's a third of the way there, after a chastened England batted with monastic restraint, bowled with discipline, and even held their catches. If the wheels had come off at Wellington, Napier might be remembered as the town where the show got back on the road. At last England seemed to have a plan. Nick Knight, who is getting used to playing second fiddle early on to Marcus Trescothick, hit just the right note on a pitch that wasn't quite as bouncy as expected. And Graham Thorpe chipped and chivvied like the one-day expert everyone is always saying he is. Nasser Hussain had the nous to bowl Matthew Hoggard straight through his ten overs because the ball was swinging, a factor which influenced his decision to give Craig White - a "hit-the-deck bowler" as Hussain calls him - just three overs, and turn to Paul Collingwood instead. It was an inspired move: Collingwood quickly doubled his tally of one-day wickets.

Hussain really was on the ball. Nathan Astle and Chris Nevin like to throw the bat outside off, so Hussain packed the slip-and-gully cordon. Chris Cairns was the danger man, so Hussain brought back his little dazzler, Darren Gough, who built up the pressure by leaking only seven runs in two overs. Cairns, unable to get off to his usual flyer, duly chipped Collingwood to deep midwicket soon afterwards.

If 89 all out felt like another lifetime, there were still areas England need to look at. After Trescothick fell for a typically breezy 41, England batted for a long time as if they were petrified of collapsing again. From 71 for 1 after 13 overs they scraped together just 70 runs in the next 20. And they should have made more of the last 10 overs, which they began with eight wickets in hand but could only milk for 63. On a ground with piddling square boundaries, it looked like a missed opportunity. Giving away 34 extras will count against them on another day as well.

But New Zealand were a little flat, if not quite as off-key as England were four days ago. They had the chance to level their all-time score against England at 23 wins each, but lost Astle early to another shocker of a decision and couldn't find anyone to stay with Stephen Fleming after that. On Saturday they were on a different planet; today they were back down to earth. As Hollioake said, one-day cricket is a strange game.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com. You can read his reports here throughout the tour.

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