The Rocky Horror Show was conceived in Hamilton and a statue dedicated to Richard O'Brien, the creator, stands quirkily on the main road. But England's day-nightmare less than a mile away at Seddon Park was more grisly than anything written for stage, and by the end Peter Moores must have been cowering behind the dressing room couch.

It seemed that England had given up as Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum constructed the highest ever one-day partnership for New Zealand against England at a rate of nine runs per over. The bowlers lost all discipline and shape but they were only living down to a desperate standard set by the batsmen earlier.

The game was all but lost in the first innings, when England gave away their last eight wickets for 73 runs in 20.1 overs after a rain break of more than two hours. Three batsmen were run out to mirror the jitters of Wellington on Saturday; that is six dismissals of such a mode in two matches and only one to a direct hit.

Paul Collingwood was a shade unlucky in that he slipped while turning for a second run but the dismissal of Alastair Cook after a shocking call by the nervous Ravi Bopara was barely forgivable. The genesis of the overall problem was failure to rotate the strike against tight, thoughtful bowling.

New Zealand went about the task in an old-fashioned way, creating pressure with dot balls which quickly induced panic. But there were few dot balls as McCullum took on James Anderson and Ryder - who is starting to look an inspired choice of Sir Richard Hadlee and his fellow selectors - flayed Ryan Sidebottom, the new ball whizzing to all parts.

Both opening batsmen were dropped before reaching double figures but Sidebottom did himself no favours with a conspicuous show of anger when Owais Shah missed Ryder at slip. The bowler was never as effective again and, when he dropped Ryder himself late on, the crowd could not barely contain their laughter.