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Colly - Batsmen to blame

Image: Collingwood: disappointed

England captain Paul Collingwood admitted he misread the pitch after his side's miserable batting display in Wellington.

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England captain surprised by slow pitch

England captain Paul Collingwood admitted he misread the pitch after his side's miserable batting effort during the six-wicket defeat to New Zealand in Wellington. The tourists came into the game on the back of a 2-0 win in the Twenty20 series, but were bowled out for just 130 after Collingwood had opted to bat first. Brendon McCullum then struck a brisk 42 to ensure New Zealand had little trouble in knocking off the runs with 20 overs to spare. "It's been a good week with the Twenty20, we came into the game full of confidence but it didn't really happen for us with the bat," Collingwood told Sky Sports. "That was disappointing, it was a wicket that I won the toss on and looked as if it was nice and hard and (the ball) would come through. "It was pretty much the opposite - difficult to score on, they bowled and fielded very, very well. A few run outs also didn't help our cause. "I think if we'd got up to 200 it would have been defendable on that kind of wicket, but we were always chasing the game."

Pressure

England made two changes to the side that won the Twenty20 matches, bringing in Alastair Cook and Ravinder Bopara for Luke Wright and Dimitri Mascarenhas. But a poor batting performance was summed up by three run outs, all involving Owais Shah, that ended any hopes of a competitive total. "When you lose three wickets to run outs then it's disappointing but their fielding was exceptional," added Collingwood. "We got off to a decent start - nearly 40 off the first 10 overs with only one wicket down. "From that point we didn't get any kind of a partnership going - they put us under a lot of pressure - (Scott) Styris came on and bowled wicket to wicket and we found him hard to get away. "That's something we'll have to talk about and put right the next time we come up against a wicket like that. "Hopefully we'll play better next time."

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