Another wicket: Chris Cairns strikes

Common to all those matches was the curse of English cricket of late - the middle-order collapse.

The scene was set in Caclutta, where England were beaten in the opening one-day match against India, falling 25 runs short of a target of 285 by losing seven wickets for 75.

And in Cuttack, Delhi and Mumbai they were made to win the hard way (by margins of 16 runs, two runs and five runs) after suffering mid-order collapses of 3-17, 4-22 and 5-21.

In the opening one-dayer against New Zealand they again failed to make the most of promising beginnings as, from the heights of 156-2 in the 27th over, they lost their last eight wickets for 40 runs.

Wasteful

Back they came once more, with Darren Gough taking four wickets in nine balls, including the dangerous Chris Cairns and Chris Harris, to reduce the Kiwis to 144-6.

Finally, however, England were made to pay for the wastefulness with the bat - and, unless they can find an answer to the most obvious area of weakness, they can expect similar results against all strong and confident teams.

New Zealand did not win because they restricted England to a manageable total, but by showing middle-order depth.

Butler celebrates his first international wicket

In came the unheralded Andre Adams to partner Nathan Astle and in a blaze of boundaries they added 54 unbroken runs for the seventh wicket, the last six coming in one stroke from Adams, off Andrew Caddick.

Individually, England's middle-order have had their moments - Paul Collingwood (71), Michael Vaughan (63) and Andrew Flintoff (52) - but not once in India was the team able to build on good starts.

Both centuries and eight of the 13 fifties scored by England this winter so far have come from the top three of Marcus Trescothick, Nick Knight and Nasser Hussain.

Looking for a Bevan

For England to become genuine World Cup contenders, they need to find middle -order maestro found in all truly successful one-day sides - a Michael Bevan, a Jonty Rhodes or a Neil Fairbrother.

Twice at the last World Cup Australia won matches they could not afford to lose through centuries by their captain, Steve Waugh.

Waugh has now lost his place in the side, as much for his recent failures with the bat as Australia failing to reach the recent VB final.

Graham Thorpe - who many argue should bat at three - Collingwood, Flintoff, Ben Hollioake, Jeremy Snape, Owais Shah and any others brought in to bolster the middle-order had better take note.