da dobrowin： The one day series between the New Zealand and England is taking theappearance of one of those tales that old cricketers tell: the same story alittle more exaggerated each time
Peter Hoare20-Feb-2000The one day series between the New Zealand and England is taking theappearance of one of those tales that old cricketers tell: the same story alittle more exaggerated each time. It goes like this. England bat first,fail to make enough of a score, New Zealand knock them off.Given that this pattern was already apparent England’s decision to bat onwinning the toss was a surprise. Their team was unchanged from the defeat atAuckland on Thursday. New Zealand replaced Katrina Keenan with Helen Watson.The first overs of the England innings set the pattern for what followed.The bowling was tight, the batting cautious. Only ten runs came from thefirst nine overs for the loss of Connor, lbw to one that nipped back off theseam from Rachel Pullar. Since being handed the poisoned chalice of theEngland captaincy in mid tour Connor has scored only 24 runs in fourinternationals.The other opener, Claire Taylor, had scored only four by the thirteenth overwhen frustration overcame her. Attempting a cross bat swipe off Ramel, shespooned a catch to Campbell at mid on.Charlotte Edwards timed the ball well until her leg stump was removed by aTiffen delivery that came in from the off when she was on 11. She was notthe last England player to be playing back when the slowness and movement ofthe pitch suggested that she would be better off on the front foot.Nicky Shaw cover drove the first boundary of the innings in the sixteenthover, following it with another straight away, before becoming as becalmedas the rest of the top order. Shaw fell in an unfortunate manner, treadingon her stumps in the process of pulling Emily Drumm.That Drumm (two previous overs in the series) chose to put herself on asearly as the twenty first over showed that with the series already won shewas going to take the chance to experiment. Her leg breaks were sometimeseccentric of line but claimed a second victim when Debbie Hockley took afine catch, turning and diving full length at silly point off the bat andpad of Laura Newton.Kathryn Leng was the only English batsman to try to take the game to the NewZealand bowlers, but those who were more cautious might say that it got herout, as Pullar caught a hard hit drive off her own bowling.Jane Cassar had come in at the fall of the third wicket. With Reynard andHolden out quickly and the score on 78-8 it was up to her to use up theovers and to take England to the outer edges of respectability. She did thiswell, producing the best batting of the innings, placing the ball well tokeep the score moving. Clare Taylor provided excellent support, the pairputting on 38 for the ninth wicket, the best partnership of the innings.Rachel Pullar was the pick of the bowlers, her brisk, testing seam bowlingearning figures of 10-2-15-3. Seven bowlers were used, though any five wouldhave got the job done. Catherine Campbell delivered a miserly eight overs ofoff spin for 12 runs, though none of the English batsmen thought of goingdown the pitch to her.The New Zealand fielding matched the bowling effort, a particularly goodexample being set by Hockley and Campbell, the two (how shall we put it?)most experienced members of the side.Though there was movement off the pitch for both spinners and seamers,especially from the town end, the England total was well below par for thefourth time in a row.The New Zealand batting set about its task with all the aggression andconfidence that England’s had lacked. As with the Australian men chasing asimilarly small total in Auckland yesterday, the approach was at times a bittoo cavalier, and wickets fell.Though England’s bowling was not as consistently accurate as New Zealand’sthere was enough evidence to suggest that if they ever get to bowl first orhave a decent total to play with they will pose a few problems. LucyPearson, the left arm opening bowler, got the ball swinging into the righthander and claimed two victims. Payne was lbw shuffling across while Drummfollowed a ball down legside to be caught behind.Dawn Holden, a slow left armer on her first tour, also impressed, bowlingwith a nice loop and considerable accuracy. She got Pulford stumped, luredinto the charge.With Rebecca Rolls (who had been promoted to open) also gone the Kiwis were53-4 and by no means home and hosed. This brought together Kathryn Ramel andHaidee Tiffen who had each taken two wickets with accurate medium pacebowling earlier. They now put on 63 for the fifth wicket with good shotselection, placement and running. Tiffen looks a fine young cricketer. Witha few more performances like this she can change her first name to Hadlee.Ramel was out just before the end, bowled by Shaw, who had earlier bowled aneleven ball over.New Zealand won by five wickets with sixteen and a half overs to spare.Seeing them for the first time this season, the impression is of acompetent, self-disciplined, well led team who will challenge Australiastrongly for the World Cup on home ground in Christchurch later this year.If England’s sponsors happen to read this, they should rest assured that theEngland team is determined, hard working and with an outwardly good spirit.It is also clear that they are chronically short of confidence, especiallywith bat in hand. Two key players, Collyer and Redfern, should return tostrengthen the side for the World Cup. Hard work is needed in theforthcoming series against South Africa.With New Zealand leading four-nil the final game in the series takes placeunder the lights in Napier on Tuesday.