England win, enter title-round

Paul Collingwood made 106 — his third limited overs century and first against New Zealand — as England reached 270 for seven batting first and Liam Plunkett took three for 60 as the Kiwis were held to 256 for eight in reply.

Stephen Fleming matched Collingwood’s score, making 106. But his painstaking innings ironically may have cost New Zealand the match as he was unable to lift the scoring rate when it was necessary and led his team to a defeat by small and painful degrees.

Fleming put on 81 with Lou Vincent for the first wicket and had his team well ahead of the required run rate of 5.4 runs per over through most of the first half of their innings.

He added a further 62 with Ross Taylor (25) for the third wicket and, when he incautiously ran out Taylor in the 35th over, New Zealand was 169 for three and needed an attainable 102 to win from 95 balls.

From that point on, New Zealand’s innings lost its structure and their target run rate crept higher and higher as they struggled against accurate England bowling and desperate fielding.

Plunkett sprayed five wides in his first over and a dozen in his first spell but came back strongly to take the wickets of Peter Fulton (12), Jacob Oram (5) and Brendon McCullum (2) in an outstanding second spell. Andy Flintoff also bowled superbly, taking one for 37 while Paul Collingwood took two for 36 and Monty Panesar one for 38.