Chasing a revised target of 160 to win in 23 overs under the Duckworth Lewis method at Edgbaston last night, the tourists had reached 127 for two after 19 overs when umpires Steve Davis and Ian Gould ended play in heavy rain.
The rules and regulations stipulate 20 overs must be faced by each side to constitute a match, leaving New Zealand only seven runs short of the target they needed for victory provided they did not lose any more wickets.
But the tourists' frustration was matched by that of the 16,000 crowd, who were mystified as to why the teams had to take a 30-minute interval between innings as stipulated in the rules and regulations, knowing a shorter break could have meant a result.
It is a system which Collingwood believes should be looked at and he stressed: "I can understand them (the crowd) getting frustrated when it goes to the wire like that in the game and everyone looks around and wonders what we could have done better.
Surprise
"The lunch-break was half-an-hour, which is the rules and regulations and there's nothing we could do about it as players or as umpires, but I do believe it is something that has to be looked at because we could have gone out there in 10 or 15 minutes.
"We didn't have any lunch to have or anything like that, we'd had that before the match.
"From a players' point of view we were ready to go out there and it was a surprise to us that it was 30 minutes."
Collingwood also defended England's go-slow tactics, when they took over an hour to bowl their first 14 overs after six bowling changes in the first 11 overs and took 83 minutes to bowl the 19 overs.
Match referee Javagal Srinath confirmed last night England would not be penalised for their slow over-rate and Collingwood insisted: "It wasn't a tactical thing or anything like that.
"We were chasing the ball a little bit as well and sometimes you don't get through your overs as quickly as that. It certainly wasn't a tactical thing because I didn't realise it was that slow.
"It was just a shame that at that point, when it goes down to the last over before Duckworth Lewis that this happens.
"If it was just drizzling we could have stayed out there but the ball was already pretty wet as well and it would have been farcical if we'd have carried on."
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, whose side had suffered comprehensive defeats in the Twenty20 international and the first match in the NatWest Series, admitted the wash-out felt almost like a defeat.
"I feel hard done-by," fumed Vettori. "It is a game we would have won if we'd been allowed to play the allotted overs or played the 20th over.
"It's almost like a loss. It has been a tough tour so far so to pick up a win here would have been fantastic.
"I think more could have been done to get the game finished. I think England's over-rate was particularly slow but if we were in the same situation we would probably do the same thing." Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
umpires are a joke. why let the players have 1/2 an hour break in between sides batting. when they had been sat in the changing rooms most of the day. 10 minutes turn around, thats all was needed. bit of common sense needed.
and what would it have taken to bowl another over. 2-3 minutes. absolute joke...