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Rain denies New Zealand victory at Edgbaston

18/06/2008

England were granted a lucky escape in their second one-day international against New Zealand after the match was abandoned with the visitors needing just seven runs to win.

The visitors went into the Edgbaston game low on confidence on the back of successive Test defeats as well as having lost in the Twenty20 match and the opening fixture of the one-day series.

Their torrid time in England looked set to continue as, with the game reduced to just 29 overs per side following a rainy morning, Luke Wright stepped up to the crease to hit successive sixes and five fours to make 52.

Paul Collingwood then hit 37 in just 34 balls, while Dimitri Mascarenhas managed 23 as England finished on 162, with the match further cut to 24 overs each.

Somewhat surprisingly, the umpires then called for a mid-innings break of half an hour, with this extended due to rain, though the Kiwis still came out confident of meeting their target.

James Anderson gifted the visitors an early boost, bowling successive wides from his first two balls, before Brendan McCullum established his authority on the game, hitting 50 with a mixture of skill and relative good fortune.

With New Zealand on 127-2 after 19 overs, and McCullum on an unbeaten 60, the call was made to end the game, just one over short of the 20 needed for them to win under the Duckworth/Lewis regulations so long as they had made a further seven runs without losing a wicket.

As it was, however, the game was declared a 'no result'.