How brutally fast things change. Barely two weeks ago, Kevin Pietersen followed up his dazzling match-winning century in Durham with a chilling warning: England intended to send the New Zealanders back home with absolutely nothing to show for their tour. No win in the Tests, or the Twenty20, or the NatWest Series.

Last night, though, Pietersen and the England team he had been obliged to lead after Paul Collingwood’s inability to captain with the necessary speed of thought were the ones left empty-handed. A third defeat in eight days – this one more emphatic than the 51-run margin suggests – handed New Zealand the ODI series 3-1. But for rain, Daniel Vettori’s side would have surely won the abandoned game in Birmingham as well.

England did not deserve anything but a series defeat. Their capitulation over the past three matches takes some explaining.

Collingwood’s absence yesterday played its part in this spineless performance but the inefficiencies in all three games is a withering indictment of the complacency of a team that let good positions slip each time.

Peter Moores will doubtless be taking some positives from the catastrophe – the England coach has taken the complacent press conference to new heights – but in truth there are none.

England have endured some crushing defeats abroad but they have not looked so outclassed on home soil since they were lacerated by Sri Lankan blades at Headingley two years ago. More humility would not go amiss but even now this England camp would take some convincing that New Zealand are indeed the better team in the one-day sphere.

Pietersen’s first match as captain proved a miserable disappointment. He won the toss and boldly elected to bowl but little went right for him thereafter as England failed to drive home their advantage in the first quarter of the game. Their fielding was substandard, as it was at the Oval, where Scott Styris was dropped three times and an overthrow turned a tie into a defeat.

After the shenanigans at the Oval, of course, New Zealand did not need any motivating and their senior players led the way – Styris with 87 runs from 91 balls and captain Vettori with a masterly spell of three for 32 in mid-innings. But the younger brigade were to the fore too: particularly Daniel Flynn, who ended a good series strongly with 35 runs and a good catch in the deep and will return home with better memories than just having his teeth rearranged in Manchester.

Lazy excuses from England should no longer tolerated. Ian Bell once more got set before tossing away his wicket. Ravi Bopara, similarly, looked self-absorbed, a young man playing for his place. Tim Ambrose ended a nightmare series with a blunder in the field and another failure. His scores in the series are 1 not out, 1, 0, 6 and 2. Matt Prior is owed a recall in one-dayers, and possibly Test matches as well.

As so often, England, chasing 267, began brightly, flattering to deceive. Bell shaped nicely against the new ball, driving two fours in the first over, and Alastair Cook – Collingwood's stand-in, whose inclusion necessitated Luke Wright dropping back down to No 6 – clipped the ball efficiently off his hip in the eleventh over to bring up the 50.

A Cook-Bell combination has been damned as too stodgy but it looked capable enough here. Batting looked the easiest thing in the world. The outfield looked fast. How could England lose from here?

In any number of ways. Bell promptly played across the line and another chance to play a match-winning innings had gone begging. Bell has not progressed one iota in the past 12 months and needs a spell of rehab in the Edgbaston home for young offenders. Soon after, Cook feathered the finest of edges to the keeper in Tim Southee’s first over; another circumspect innings that failed to produce a good yield.

England hope that the added responsibility of captaincy might bring another 10 per cent out of Pietersen, but here it generated 50 per cent less. Rightly not wanting to repeat his ugly dismissal at the Oval, he was ultra-cautious, spending 23 balls over six runs (and no boundaries) before tamely steering a catch to backward point. If this is a responsible Pietersen, bring back the carefree one fast.

Owais Shah alone batted with the necessary freedom but even he was nearly caught at cover before he had reached double figures and by the time he opened his shoulders the game was up. When Wright was fifth out, bowled trying to cut a straight ball, Shah had scored 24. He subsequently blazed away merrily until he holed out in the deep for 69, thus raising his second-innings average in ODIs to 21.1. England’s failure with the bat is clear from the fact they lost all 10 wickets in the last four matches.

The loss of Collingwood through suspension seemed to unnerve England in the field. They were not at their best in any respect, save for Graeme Swann, who bowled an exemplary 10 overs in the middle section of the innings. He dismissed Flynn, beaten through the air, and cut off Jacob Oram in mid-rampage, having him caught on the rope that he had already cleared spectacularly three times. Oram’s 52 occupied just 40 balls.

Swann came within millimetres of having Styris stumped on 38. Replays were called for but proved inconclusive. Swann also took the catch at slip that accounted for the dangerous Brendon McCullum, curiously subdued during a 57-ball stay that produced just 23 runs. However, England’s bowling generally lacked spark and self-belief, while the fielding was nervy, anxious and ordinary. The poor tone was set in the sixth over by Ambrose shelling a routine offering running back to collect Jamie How’s top-edged hook off James Anderson. It was an awful miss and the crowd let Ambrose know it.

Had Collingwood not been confined to sitting on the balcony, the fielding might of course have been more vibrant. As the best fielder in the side, he was impossible to replace, and as chance would have it Styris, on 14, gave a sharp chance to Collingwood’s favoured position, backward point. It was a difficult chance that only an experienced backward point would have taken and Bopara, reacting late, could only get a palm onto the ball as he leapt high to his right.

Pietersen also had to find a way of making up Collingwood's ten overs. He opted to give Wright six, Bopara one and Shah three and it only worked up to a point: 72 runs conceded for no wickets, the last three overs, bowled by Shah, costing 30. On reflection Pietersen might wish he had not given him a third over, as it resulted in Oram smashing Shah twice over the long-on rope.

As had happened in Bristol seven days earlier, New Zealand were allowed to wriggle off the hook. Styris, on old thorn in English sides, was the orchestrator of the recovery, first in partnership with the blossoming Flynn, then in the biggest stand of the innings with Oram, worth 87.

The biggest fireworks came in the last five overs as Styris and Grant Elliott plundered 61, Styris in particular going into overdrive as he took 40 off his last 17 balls. Sidebottom and Anderson took the worst of the punishment to round off poor series for both of them: their combined figures were seven wickets at 51 apiece.