Ben Stokes makes return for England but New Zealand spoil comeback with three-wicket win in opening ODI

Out he marched, after picking up his gloves and helmet and a final word with Mark Wood, his Durham teammate, who was sitting on the bench injured. Exactly five months after his last game for England, Ben Stokes was back.

Run-scoring was not easy on a tired and slow late-season pitch and every England batsman struggled to get going, especially those who had missed the T20 tri-series. They totalled only 284 and New Zealand rather coolly knocked off their target to win the first of five one-day internationals with three wickets and four balls to spare.

“Best of luck, Stokesy!”, shouted one of the hundred or so England supporters in Seddon Park. The remaining 10,000 spectators were quiet but then they were quiet, peaceful and placid for the whole of England’s innings, as if it had been Sunday afternoon at a bowls club. Cricket in New Zealand is still friendly: in both innings a batsman picked up the ball for a bowler. Until the beer began to talk a bit, there was no trace of the aggression from home players or crowd, to Stokes or anyone else, that marks cricket in Australia.

For his innings of 12 off 22 balls Stokes had his collar turned up against the sharp sunlight. He took guard against New Zealand’s legspinner Ish Sodhi in a trickyish situtation: England in their 22nd over had reached 103, but three wickets were down so it was not time to attack. Stokes pushed Sodhi to long-on first ball. Much water beneath the bridge - and a quick visit to New Zealand before Christmas - since his last run for England.

Next he faced Trent Boult, New Zealand’s clever left-arm pace bowler. A pull for a single, a dot-ball, then Stokes pushed the ball hard back to Boult who spilled it in his followthrough, one of four catches the Kiwis uncharacteristically missed. ODIs are England’s favourite format but New Zealand are very well-drilled. Stokes could have gone for one off four balls.

Again Stokes faced Sodhi, who had deceived Eoin Morgan with a googly to prompt his entry. Stokes was not deceived by the googly but the balls ticked up until he had two runs off seven and impatience told. He decided to reverse-sweep - and the ball he chose was the opposite of ideal for the purpose, a straight and very low full-toss. Stokes would have gone leg-before if he had missed, but - if there was a reminder of the skills England had missed in the Ashes, this was it - he still reverse-swept it for four.

Only a few more runs were to come. Stokes was tied down by both New Zealand spinners in a reminder of his Achilles heel: in spite of his IPL deals he has yet to learn how to manoeuvre spinners. It is still block or bash and, having reached 12 off 21 balls, he went to sweep a six when he should have aimed straighter and leading-edged a dolly to short third man.

But then all of Stokes’ teammates struggled to get going, so grudging was the pitch: England took 11 balls to get off the mark, Jonny Bairstow managed one scoring shot off 13 balls, and Jos Buttler could barely lay a bat on Sodhi in reaching five off 10 balls. Whereupon Buttler launched Sodhi straightish for three consecutive sixes and hit 74 off his next 55 balls. Joe Root earnestly ran his singles for 71 off 75 balls but Buttler was the only one to overcome the pitch’s slowness and Tim Southee’s offcutter.

When Stokes came on to bowl the 13th over, England were on top, New Zealand 42 for three wickets. England had an hour of bowling before the sun went down and dew took effect, and David Willey swung the ball a bit for his six overs. Colin Munro was “six and out”, Buttler caught Kane Williamson’s attempt at a steer, and Stokes himself caught Martin Guptill’s drive head-high at cover.

But when Stokes returned to bowl the 39th in his second spell, New Zealand were back in the game, needing 98 off 13 overs. Whereas England’s highest partnership was 79, Ross Taylor and Tom Latham put on 178 for the fifth wicket with splendidly-composed strokeplay. Latham - a makeshift keeper but a good Test left-hander - was first to seize the initiative while Taylor, once he had played himself in, was brilliant with his bottom hand, either pushing singles or pulling fours. He passed 7,000 runs in the course of his 18th ODI century.

Stokes, if rusty, still looked strong at the crease and kicked the air at the end of his followthrough if the ball was not what he intended. He took two wickets in his second spell of four overs, having Latham caught pulling to mid-on and duping Colin de Grandhomme with his slower ball. “I thought he adapted to conditions perfectly well,” Morgan said of Stokes afterwards. “He’s delighted to be back.”

However, England’s fielding was not what it should have been, especially the wicketkeeping. After powering England’s innings, Buttler missed a catch, a stumping and a run-out, while Bairstow dropped another catch.

With 44 wanted off five overs, Morgan got it right when he brought back Adil Rashid to get Taylor stumped, but wrong when he did not give his senior death bowler, Chris Woakes, his full quota. Not that it made much difference once Mitchell Santner started swinging everything over midwicket to finish the game with 45 off 27 balls. The second game is at Tauranga Oval on Wednesday.

Centurion Taylor said of Stokes: "He bowled heavy. He bowled a lot of change-ups. He adapted well. Along with Curran, he was quite hard to hit. I’m sure he’ll be better for the hit-out. There are definitely no cobwebs there."