Every now and then you need a game of one-day cricket which is not laid on a plate for the batsmen.
Take Wellington's Cake Tin last night, a match which produced only 464 runs and 18 wickets.
England nailed the four-run victory on the last ball of the game to take a 2-1 lead in the five-game series heading to Dunedin next Wednesday.
England's 234 proved just enough on a testing pitch. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson's valiant 112 not out came up one good blow short of what would have been a thrilling win.
But anyone bemoaning the lack of runs doesn't get it. England captain Eoin Morgan did. Runfests infest the limited-overs game. Far too many matches are played on roads, set up to flog the bowlers. Occasionally you need to give the bowlers a break.
"It's important for the game,'' Morgan, England's top scorer with a vital 48 yesterday, said.
"You need entertainment, it can't just be crash, bang, wallop the whole time.
New Zealand player Kane Williamson bats during game three of the One Day International series between New Zealand and England. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
"230 was an entertaining game. Now it might be 300 in Dunedin or Christchurch (venue for the fifth game next weekend) but when there's something on offer for everyone it certainly dangles a carrot.''
In a game in which fortunes fluctuated throughout, England's batsmen did a good job on a poor pitch, digging deep and figuring out they wouldn't need to aim for 300 to be in the hunt last night.
New Zealand, benefitting from a strangely benign pitch after the innings break, seemed in charge at 80 for one in the 18th over.
But the batting tumbled embarrassingly, four wickets falling for six in the space of 22 balls.
What's worse, there were dreadful, thoughtless shots played, while Williamson stood helpless as the self-inflicted carnage unfolded before him.
Even so, he picked the team back up, added 96 with in-form Mitchell Santner for the seventh wicket and, at the end, with Ish Sodhi for company almost pulled it off.
Santner's series batting average is 149, after scores of 45 not out, 63 not out and 41 last night.
''They deserved to win,'' a magnanimous Williamson said of England last night, and certainly their bowling from the spinners, then later at the death was outstanding.
''Starting our innings we were in a position of strength after 15 overs then stumbled in the middle which really hurt us.''
Only four players, some of them legends of the game, have reached 5000 ODI runs faster than Williamson's 119 innings – Hashim Amla (South Africa, 101), Viv Richards (West Indies, 114), Virat Kohli (India, 114) and Brian Lara (West Indies, 118).
There are some legendary names behind him but if you figure Williamson might be blowing a trumpet at that feat, you'd be way off the mark.
