It's good to talk. And think

England's morale-boosting win in Auckland was testament to a team at last thinking about their game, and not letting their emotions spill over - as happened in the previous two one-dayers. Mike Atherton writes in the Sunday Telegraph:

Paul Collingwood's young England team went through this Fleming-like rite of passage this week at Hamilton and Auckland. At Hamilton, defending a pitiful total, and having been given a last-minute blast by Collingwood in the now-familiar on-field huddle, England came out snarling, looking for a fight. After every delivery of Ryan Sidebottom's first over, Jesse Ryder was surrounded by a phalanx of fielders with plenty to say. James Anderson backed this up at the other end with a barrage of bouncers, and when Owais Shah dropped Ryder at slip, Sidebottom let rip such a howl of anguish it looked like his head would explode.

For a while this was an England team out of control and in schoolyard bully-mode. No one could accuse them of not caring, or not trying, but they were certainly not thinking. Within two overs, it was clear from the sidelines that the bouncer ploy was misguided and that Brendon McCullum and Ryder were happy to feed off the bouncers to the short, square boundaries. Amid all the hoopla, nobody had the wherewithal to step back from the fray, calm things down and demand a different plan of attack. It was as brainless, as witless a passage of play, as it is possible to see. The intention was to rattle New Zealand, but it was England themselves who were rattled.

England's recovery, for want of a better word, wasn't due to extra nets or a physical thrashing by their New Zealand fitness coach. It was, as Stuart Broad tells Atherton, all about talking:

"It was an open floor. It was a case of has anyone got anything to say because that wasn't good enough and we're going to sort it out now. Colly [Paul Collingwood] had some words. KP [Kevin Pietersen] had some words. And we were just open. Then we sat own in Auckland and vowed to sort it out and come out fighting. It proves what honesty can do."

"I'm happy to contribute to those sorts of forums. The way we did it was very good, splitting up into groups and discussing things. It gets the younger lads involved so that you're not just sat in the corner frightened to say anything. You can get your view across without feeling under pressure to say anything and that's what's fantastic about this team. Everyone is good friends with everyone.