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BIRMINGHAM - It felt like a gut-wrenching loss for New Zealand's cricketers but their bizarre day in Birmingham at least offered hope the one-day series against England could go down to the wire.
Still without a win in five weeks of jousting with England, they went closest in
the second one-day international when just six deliveries and seven runs stood between them and the Duckworth/Lewis target of 134 off 20 overs.
The dark clouds finally delivered on their threat and umpires Steve Davis and Ian Gould consulted, then led the players off Edgbaston for an agonising no-result as Brendon McCullum protested to the bitter end on 60 not out with the tourists 127 for two.
Inflexible International Cricket Council (ICC) rules, such as a minimum 30-minute innings break in rain-shortened matches and a final cut-off finish time - even though the sun burst through 20 minutes after the match was halted at 7.25pm - made the situation more baffling.
A pained captain Daniel Vettori, who blamed the umpires for not "taking control of the game" and hurrying England's bowlers to complete their required 20 overs with rain threatening, still found some encouragement heading into Saturday's third match in Bristol.
Mercifully, the series is still alive but New Zealand still need to win the final three matches to claim overall honours.
"It was like the tie at Napier (in February against England), a game we should have won," Vettori said.
"You walk off with that instant reaction that it felt like a loss, but then you sift through it you realise it was a good performance. Most guys would be happy with the way they played."
Highlights for Vettori were the three-wicket debut of allrounder Grant Elliott, Kyle Mills' opening spell and Tim Southee's death bowling in England's abbreviated innings of 162 off 24 overs.
McCullum reined in his attack-at-all-costs approach in a still-rapid 51-ball knock with just five fours, which should have been enough to celebrate a win.
"Now we're riding a little bit of confidence but we've got to make sure we take that to Bristol and not let ourselves down," Vettori said.
The key figure of Jacob Oram could return from a hamstring strain in Bristol, although maybe as a batsman only and subject to a fitness test at Friday training.
Elliott impressed his skipper with a "fantastic" debut and may have sealed his place for the rest of the series, with wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins perhaps the unlucky one if Oram returns.
"My recommendation would be for (Elliott) to stay as long as possible but he's definitely here for Bristol," Vettori said.
"We're going to push (Oram) pretty hard over these next two days and with Grant performing well there's a place for Jacob to come into the side purely as a batsman."
Officials defended their roles in the Edgbaston debacle.
Australian umpire Davis fronted up for interview immediately afterwards and had no regrets.
"For consistency with our rulings earlier in the day we had to come off. There were two teams out there struggling to stand up in the slippery conditions," Davis told Sky Sports.
"The number of balls left shouldn't come into it, if that's the way the conditions are."
And match referee Javagal Srinath, the former Indian test bowler, backed the umpires and said they were bound by ICC rules.
"They (umpires) did a commendable job today. It was a brave decision - it wasn't easy in the centre to make that decision to come off," Srinath said.
He added England were well within their time to complete the overs and captain Paul Collingwood wouldn't face any fines for slow over rates.
- NZPA
