England slump to 10-wicket defeat

Cricket:    England slumped to a 10-wicket ODI defeat for only the fourth time in their history as New Zealand took a stranglehold…

Cricket:   England slumped to a 10-wicket ODI defeat for only the fourth time in their history as New Zealand took a stranglehold on their five-match series at Seddon Park.

Hoping to make amends for Saturday's desperate six-wicket defeat at Wellington, which was completed with 20 overs to spare, England instead slumped to even greater depths in the second game of the five-match series.

Put into bat, the tourists were on course for a competitive total at 85 for two after 15 overs when rain halted play for a further two hours and 20 minutes and restricted the match to 36 overs a side.

But their momentum was lost and England slumped to 158 all out, losing eight wickets for 73 runs after the restart. New Zealand completed their victory in only 18.1 overs, chasing a target of 165 set by the Duckworth-Lewis calculation.

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It was only the fourth time in 485 one-day internationals that England had suffered such a defeat and followed a record one-day partnership by New Zealand against England from Jessie Ryder and Brendon McCullum off only 109 balls.

Ryder, playing just his second one-day international, won the man-of-the-match award after hitting an unbeaten 79 off 62 balls including 11 fours and two sixes while McCullum was unbeaten on 80 from 47 balls including eight fours and five sixes.

It was a desperate display from the tourists, which included three run-outs in England's innings for the second successive match while hard-hitting openers McCullum and Ryder were both dropped inside the first five overs of New Zealand's reply.