KEY POINTS:
The script for England's tour has been tossed in the bin.
New Zealand were tipped to win the ODI series, which they did, but England had been expected to call the shots when the real cricket began. Instead, New Zealand utterly dominated the first test, crushing England by
189 runs with 26 overs to spare at Seddon Park yesterday.
Requiring 300 to win off a minimum 81 overs, England were rolled for a lamentable 110 in just 55 overs. All the positive cricket came from the hosts and they thoroughly deserved to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
They batted with purpose - even though they might have had an attack of the heebie-jeebies as Ryan Sidebottom put New Zealand in a tumble dryer with his hat-trick late on Saturday - and bowled with skill, persistence and penetration, thus making a mockery of those daft souls who saw "draw" in the tea leaves after three days.
England have now won just one test of their last 16 overseas going back to January 2005. They were well off the pace in this test, short of resolve and technique when it was needed yesterday - Ian Bell an honourable exception with a gritty, unbeaten 54.
New Zealand had talked about the need to maintain momentum from the ODI series win and the test threw up several outstanding performances, none more so than from captain Daniel Vettori, who scored crucial runs in both innings and bowled magnificently throughout. He richly deserved his man of the match award.
More than that, he captained with a front-foot philosophy, looking to maintain pressure and not let things stagnate.
After chipping, nurdling and hoicking 22 runs to add to his overnight 13 at a run-a-ball rate, he declared at 177 for nine. If he was concerned when Alastair Cook took three fours in the first two overs, his worries were eased by Kyle Mills' finest test performance, in ripping out the first four wickets in a 25-ball burst at a cost of just two runs.
Mills bowled a superb line and his length was demanding. He induced edges from Cook and Andrew Strauss, had Michael Vaughan lbw and got Kevin Pietersen to shoulder arms to a ball which nipped back and flicked his pad.
Any faint hopes England entertained of having a crack at a difficult target on a pitch giving some help to the bowlers were long gone as they lunched at 36 for four.
Paul Collingwood, a potential rock, chopped Vettori onto his stumps after facing 50 balls for two runs. Chris Martin blew away Tim Ambrose and Ryan Sidebottom in one over and it was left to Jacob Oram to break the best stand of the innings, 33, dismissing Monty Panesar, Brendon McCullum taking his fifth catch of the innings.
The last six wickets had gone in 25.3 overs at a cost of 51 runs.
Martin's three wickets drew him level with Lance Cairns as New Zealand's fifth most successful test bowler with 130 wickets; Mills' six for 77 off 34.1 overs in the match were a good reflection of his work while Patel and tight-fisted Oram did their bit. Vettori's 70-23-104-3 in the match tell their own story.
In a curious way, Sidebottom's hat-trick played an important part in the denouement yesterday.
New Zealand had been sailing along at 99 for one but went into freefall and at 119 for seven all their good work was in danger of counting for nought. But Vettori's instructions had been to push on. He had a target in mind, although he might not have been expecting to have to get New Zealand up there himself.
Sidebottom was one of the few Englishmen to emerge with credit from the match. He bowled magnificently, becoming the 11th England bowler to take a test hat-trick and finished with a richly deserved 10 for 139 in the match.
England's batting on the third day, when they crawled along at barely two an over, ensured New Zealand maintained the upperhand, even at times when wickets were hard to come by.
England have a sizeable job to get up to speed for the second test starting in Wellington on Thursday. New Zealand are jubilant.
Who'd have picked it?
