THE ENGLAND cricket team should consider making all their one day games daynight affairs so that whenever Mr Phillip Clive Roderick Tufnell's movements in the darkness hours come up for discussion, the management can not only say exactly where he was and what he was doing but also call on 25,000 witnesses.

Allegations this week that Tufnell's nocturnal skills were not strictly limited to his ability to bowl 10 floodlit overs of parsimonious left arm spin into the rough inspired a good deal of ribaldry in the Lancaster Park crowd yesterday. Tufnell's response showed some character as well as talent. Playing in his first one day international for two years, he won the man of the match award with figures of 10-1-22-4.

After a wobble down the final straight, England won by four wickets with seven balls to spare. They had lost their previous 12 away one day games against Test playing countries, so this was something of an occasion.

There was a wicked twinkle in his eye afterwards when Tufnell completed a press conference by saying: "I'll see you all down at Bardellis" (this the bar restaurant which alleged he had been smoking pot there on Monday evening).

Tufnell might not have played yesterday but for the pitch being the same as that used for the five day Test. It was worn and slow. New Zealand won the toss and batted but after scoring 76 from the first 15 overs, they were cut back to four an over by Tufnell and Robert Croft, who did well despite being brought on within the first 15 overs, and seeing one go for 16 runs. Nathan Astle, who made 50 from 61 balls, with six fours, mostly cover driven, and Chris Harris (48 from 51) were the main batsmen.

England lost their openers - cheaply, in consecutive overs, as they struggled against New Zealand's dobber dominated one day attack on a slow surface, but then Alec Stewart (81) and Graham Thorpe (82) added 170 in 34 covers. Stewart straight drove Chris Cairns for six and Thorpe gained a similar reward when he swung Dipak Patel over midwicket. At 193 for two, with 20 needed off 10, nothing looked more simple. But this England team are sentimentalists at heart and they wanted to indulge us. Those nostalgia junkies among us were given a cameo of old (and some not so old) disasters as three wickets tumbled in 19 balls. Suddenly, with Gavin Larsen bowling like a miser, six runs were needed from two overs. Then Croft came in, hit his first two balls for four, and it was all over.