England made a steady start on a good batting track after being put in by New Zealand in the fourth one-day international at The Oval.

Ian Bell, fit despite hurting his knee playing touch rugby, and Luke Wright took the score to Gritty Kiwis win to level series ...
Clinton backs Obama and bows out ...
Vaughan praises 'special victory' ...
Sidebottom puts England in charge ...
Obama 'angry' at pastor comments ... 18-0 in four overs.

Ryan Sidebottom returned to fitness for England to replace the unfortunate Chris Tremlett, who was one of their best performers in the last match.

New Zealand welcomed back their key all-rounder Jacob Oram after injury.

LATEST ACTION (ALL TIMES BST)

By Ben Dirs

e-mail tms@bbc.co.uk (with 'For Ben Dirs' in the subject), text 81111 (with "CRICKET" as the first word) or use 606. (Not all contributions can be used)

ENGLAND INNINGS

4th over - 18-0 Bell pokes Gillespie through point and runs two. Gillespie serves up a no-ball and Bell has another free hit... and this time he latches onto it, falling away to leg and carving Gillespie over extra-cover for the first maximum of the match. A replay suggests that wasn't actually a no-ball by Gillespie, which has got to be a bit of a choker. Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, is on TMS at lunch time chatting about the Zimbabwe situation, if that's your bag.

3rd over - 8-0 Bell nicks a single before Wright heaves Mills down to third-man where Southee, taking his eye off a spinning ball, misfields and gives up two.

"I was at the Twenty20 match in your neck of the woods last night, Dirs, watching some awesome hitting from Graham Napier. Wonder if the fellow Essex fan sat behind me who gave Napier plenty of stick as he strolled to the crease felt a bit foolish about an hour later?"
Andrew Hill in the TMS inbox 2nd over - 5-0 Mr Kavanagh did also mention the "awesome" Twenty20 encounter between Essex and Sussex at Chelmsford last night. Sixteen sixes from Graham Napier, which is more than Boycott, Gavaskar and Tavare notched between them in their entire careers. To be honest, I just made that up, but it's probably true. Wright has a big old woosh outisde off-stump and misses and that's a maiden from Gillsespie.

1st over - 5-0 Mills has first bung and his opening delivery is a massive no-ball and England have a free hit. Bell doesn't get hold of that at all, dribbling the ball back past Mills for a single. Wright tucks Mills off his pads for one before Bell clips two to fine-leg - and that's the first over. Michael Kavanagh just emailed in and called me a "keyboard jockey". Sounds like some strange fetish. Come to think of it, this spacebar has been playing up a bit.

1040: Gus Fraser reckons England will need more than 300 to be competitive today and if that's the case, we may well see a few more Pietersen switch-hits, which would no doubt excite everybody no end. Here's the Sugababes! And here come Umpires Benson and Davis...

England: LJ Wright, IR Bell, KP Pietersen, RS Bopara, PD Collingwood, OA Shah, TR Ambrose, GP Swann, SCJ Broad, RJ Sidebottom, JM Anderson New Zealand: BB McCullum, JM How, LRPL Taylor, SB Styris, DR Flynn, JDP Oram, GD Elliott, DL Vettori, KD Mills, TG Southee, MR Gillespie

"I suppose you've got to do something to get the players loose and you can't wrap players up in cotton wool. The odd game of touch rugby or football on the outfield does cause the odd injury scare, but it's less boring than the old stretches we used to do."
Angus Fraser on TMS

1033: Is it my imagination or has the idea of picking a side and players specifically for a pitch a thing of the past? Can't help thinking Tremmers would have got plenty of bounce out of this Oval track, and, unlike Anderson at Bristol, he might not have bowled loads of half-bungers on leg stump.

1027: New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori has won the toss at The Oval and will bowl first. Is that a strange decision? Seems like a strange decision to me. Why would you not bat first on a sunny day at The Oval? Watch those Kiwis ram these words down my throat, the black-shirted swines - they do like a chase. Vettori reckons "anything under 280 and we'll have done a good job".

1024: New just in that Bell has been passed fit and will start, while seamer Chris Tremlett, who looked pretty impressive in the last game, has been dropped for Ryan Sidebottom. Jimmy Anderson can consider himself lucky, he got some fearful tap in the last match, although he did take a few wickets.

1019: Morning all. The main news this morning concerns Ian Bell - the ruddy idiot has rubbered his knee playing rugby and might miss this fourth one-dayer. Alastair Cook is ready to step in if the Warwickshire batsman doesn't make it. For the Kiwis, powerful all-rounder Jacob Oram will play his first game of the series after recovering from a hamstring injury. Bright and breezy down in south London, we will almost certainly get a full day's play.

(BBC)

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