Rain halts sharp England

New Zealand U-19s 109 for 7 (Harris 2-24) v England U-19s - No result
Scorecard

	Greg Morgan made 21 before falling to Liam Dawson © Getty Images

England Under-19s maintained their 1-0 series lead when the fourth ODI against New Zealand Under-19s was washed out after 34 overs at Northampton. England were well placed having reduced the visitors to 109 for 7, but didn't get the chance to make it count.

It means the best New Zealand can hope for is a share of the series in the final match at the same ground on Friday. However, they will have to improve their batting performance after they struggled against both pace and spin.

James Harris made the breakthrough in the first over with a sharp, low return catch and half the side were gone with less than fifty on the board. Ben Brown, the Sussex wicketkeeper, held a sharp catch to remove 16-year-old Craig Cachopa and England's fielding was impressive.

So, too, was the spin bowling of Liam Dawson and Will Beer. The previous evening Dawson won Man of the Match for Hampshire, in the Pro40 against Sussex, but that was more for his batting. Here he flighted his left-arm spin nicely and he took a neat caught-and-bowled to remove Harry Boam then had Greg Morgan lbw sweeping.

Beer, the Sussex legspinner, also found sharp turn against batsmen unsure about using their feet and often getting caught on the crease. There were a couple of short stoppages before the rain eventually closed in after Joe Austin-Smellie and Doug Bracewell had pushed the total past 100.