England had suffered losses before under the Peter Moores regime, but nothing to match a sudden, heavy and abject surrender at Seddon Park. A performance as bad as this will stay long in the memories of the players and the head coach is about to find out whether some of his squad have the willpower to fight back or will simply disintegrate.

Never before had New Zealand beaten England by ten wickets in a one-day international and nor had two of their batsmen added as many as the 165 put on by Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum to secure victory in 18.1 overs. England must now win all three remaining matches to avoid defeat in the series.

The previous time that England lost so heavily was against Sri Lanka in Dambulla in 2003, but the way that Ryder and McCullum took the bowling apart recalled a subsequent Sri Lanka effort by Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga at Headingley in 2006, when the openers put on 286 to help Sri Lanka to pass a total of 321 with 12.3 overs to spare. At least on that occasion the England batsmen came away in credit.

This time, after a delay of more than two hours for rain, they lost eight wickets for 73 runs in 20.1 overs largely through panic and poor judgment. True, Jacob Oram and Michael Mason bowled superbly in the half-hour after the resumption, but three run-outs tell their own story of brains scrambled under pressure.

England have lost six wickets to run-outs in the two matches so far but only once to a direct hit. In other words, England are either underestimating the throwing power of the New Zealanders or laying ridiculously high stakes for the reward of one run.

Ravi Bopara seemed especially troubled and made one of the costliest mistakes of the game in calling Alastair Cook for a run having hit the ball almost straight to Ross Taylor.

Cook had been England’s most convincing batsman from the start and represented the best chance of extending the target closer to 200.

Paul Collingwood, the captain, was mystified at how the game had changed after the break with England on 85 for two from 15 overs. “We have to be honest with ourselves and talk about what went wrong,” he said. “In the dressing-room there are people who want to be shouting. A lot of words have been spoken already.

“Defeats like this one and at Wellington will dent our confidence. A lot of players are very down and very, very hurt by this performance. We are making far too many mistakes. New Zealand are leading us in all three areas at the moment and it is strange because we have not had problems with so many run-outs before.”

The collapse began when Kevin Pietersen misjudged his attempt to force Mason into the on side and was leg-before. Next ball, Collingwood was well beaten by a powerful throw by Oram at third man attempting a second run and, two overs later, Mason nipped one between Owais Shah’s bat and pad to strike the top of off stump.

The bowlers created pressure the old-fashioned way, with dot balls. England hit too many shots too powerfully to fielders and could not rotate the strike, while Bopara’s nerves spread. Collingwood said: “We have to get behind players when they are in a bad run of form. We must remind Ravi of what a good player he is.”

Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, said that his side drew confidence during the break from watching television highlights of the match against Australia here last year when they scored 350 batting second to win. McCullum had an extra reason to succeed as his father, Stu, is recovering in hospital after a heart attack.

England needed early wickets to defend a Duckworth/Lewis target of 165. Instead, they damaged the cause straight away. Phil Mustard dropped a tough catch to his right off the first legitimate ball to McCullum; the Durham wicketkeeper suffered directly by comparison because McCullum had taken a harder one-handed effort to remove Ian Bell.

Ryder, on eight, was missed low at slip by Shah and Ryan Sidebottom, the bowler, resembled a steaming kettle as he made scant effort to restrain his anger. Such a response cannot have done much for team unity and Sidebottom was made to look a bit silly when he himself dropped Ryder in his follow-through when the batsman was on 72.

By then, the game was over. Sidebottom’s bowling lost its discipline, but he was not alone. McCullum finished with 80 from 47 balls; Ryder, inspired by England’s verbals, hit 79 from 62. With too many balls off length, they could hit, as Paul McCartney almost sang, here, square and everywhere.