New Zealand still worth backing

England were pretty impressive in the first one-day international against New Zealand on Sunday and are now predictably odds-on favourites to win the five-match series, but I would not write off the tourists just yet.

Bet365 make England 1/8 (1.12) to go on and win it, which is fair enough, but at 9/2, New Zealand still rate as a decent price because for all their joy on Sunday, England still struggle to get their heads round the traditional 50-over game.

If Jacob Oram can overcome his niggling injury problems, then New Zealand will be a much more formidable side going into the second match, on Wednesday, and beyond.

The fact remains that since the Ashes, when they beat the Aussies 4-1 in the one-day series, England's only win came last year, when they pipped West Indies in the final match.

Neither squad changes too much, but New Zealand just understand how to play one-day cricket better than England. With about five men who could harshly be described as "bit-part" players, they always play above their individual talents, with their fielding excellent.

England will miss Andrew Flintoff as much, if not more, than they do in the Test arena, and ever since the retirement of Marcus Trescothick from the international game, they have struggled to set a tempo at the top of the innings.

Sooner or later, they are going to have to figure out that the way to score runs in one-day cricket is to score fast at the top of the order and keep going, rather than settle for a slow opening and be happy to keep wickets in hand, hoping for an onslaught later on. That, nowadays at least, is not good enough.