Collingwood the hero as England take 43-run win in Napier

Hard work developing his bowling action worked for Durham county all-rounder Paul Collingwood last night when he skittled Lou Vincent, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris and Andre Adams to help England to a deserved 43-run win over New Zealand at Napier.

The win kept the National Bank One-Day International Series alive and was a reminder to the New Zealanders that, despite all the work they have put into advancing their game this year, they can still be undone by neglect of the basics of the game, especially partnership building.

Collingwood had a previous best of one for 31 in his 16 ODIs and he had only three wickets at a cost of 101 runs apiece before last night's effort.

He finished with four for 38, the result of his finding the McLean Park environment and the settling dew suitable for his swing bowling.

England were defending a score of 244/5, another score in the 240s that has dominated much of New Zealand's one-day summer.

But there were no heroics to get the CLEAR Black Caps out of this muddle.

England built their total around the batting of Nick Knight. His 80 was a classic foundation-type innings which could only be faulted for the fact that he got out in the 43rd over when the chance was there to bat all the way through and make an even bigger total. He did take a blow to the face when pinned by a ball from fast bowler Ian Butler to sustain a cut that needed three stitches.

As it was, part of the slack was taken up by Graham Thorpe who plundered with some success and brought up a half century off 48 balls. He produced some hard hit shots in the latter part of his innings and was only out to a fine leaping catch on the boundary's edge by Nathan Astle.

England had built their innings cautiously after getting to 71/1 in 13 overs, the same score as at the 15-over mark due to two maidens bowled when the players returned from the first of two rain breaks.

But tight bowling, especially from fast-medium merchant Daryl Tuffey, whose 10 overs cost only 39 runs, and Harris, who took one for 29, kept the lid on any scoring outbreaks from the tourists.

They kept their wickets too, although Marcus Trescothick departed for 41, off 50 balls, when hitting a ball from Cairns straight to Harris, while Nasser Hussain, the England captain, got it all wrong when trying to sweep Harris and was bowled around his legs for 24.

New Zealand's chase was not helped by quite possibly the umpiring blunder of the series to date when Brent Bowden gave Astle out for a catch that even had Hussain smirking at the after-match press conference and mentioning that Astle might do his pants up tighter next time. Television replays showed that Astle's bat was nowhere near the ball.

Chris Nevin scored 21 off 19 but New Zealand were 31/2 in the sixth and while Craig McMillan attempted to help Stephen Fleming recover the situation he set the trend for the big hitters in the New Zealand innings when his first real effort to get onto a ball went straight to hand rather than to free country.

Similar fates befell Cairns and Adams who both departed to catches deep in the outfield.

Lou Vincent did help Fleming add 58 for the fourth wicket before he was Collingwood's first victim, caught by Craig White in the gully when he had scored 29.

The run rate requirement was mounting against the New Zealanders at this time and the pressure was on the batsmen coming in.

Fleming stood firm in an innings of 76 not out scored off 112 balls. There were some moments of outstanding strokeplay but there were other moments when he struggled.

The score was his second highest of the summer and his best since he scored 85 against South Africa in Hobart in the VB Series.

But Fleming needed much more scoring assistance than was forthcoming from his side and it would not surprise if New Zealand decided to bolster their batting in Auckland by bringing Brendon McCullum back into the side.

Whatever happens, Napier will be remembered as a happy hunting ground for England on this leg of their tour and perhaps the first step towards achieving a victory in the series.

Fleming has said New Zealand know what they have to do, and Hussain has said he expects New Zealand to come charging back at them.

Fighting talk from both camps, and that could yet be the requirement that produces the thriller this series could do with.