Odd as it may sound, it could be argued that England's failure to beat New Zealand can be traced back to their 98-run victory in the 1st Test at Christchurch.

Nasser Hussain's team may have ended triumphant in that particular match but the impact of Nathan Astle's fourth innings onslaught had a telling affect on the England captain's thinking.

That became self-evident when, no doubt wary of an Astle re-run, he delayed England's declaration during the 2nd Test at Wellington.

His fear that an hour of Astle mayhem could win the match – no matter how unlikely the chances of a repeat offering – was enough for Hussain to retreat into over-cautious mode. The fear of failure outweighed the prospect of a series victory and Astle's true influence had become clear.

Hussain, of course, could subsequently highlight Astle's later assault in Auckland – an innings which ultimately enabled Stephen Fleming to declare with a full day to bowl England out again - as evidence of what the Kiwi all-rounder might have done.

But 'what ifs?' are an intangible argument and the facts simply show that New Zealand and England drew their three-match series 1-1.

Yes, England dominated for large parts of the 1st and 2nd Tests.

Yes, the untimely death of Ben Hollioake had a devastating affect of the squad.

And yes, England's premier strike bowler – Darren Gough – was resting his weary knees back in Blighty.

However, on the flip side New Zealand were shorn of their entire first choice bowling attack, save for a clearly injury hindered Daniel Vettori.

Star all-rounder Chris Cairns – who stunned the tourists with two wickets in the very first over of the series – was ruled out before the end of the opening Test.

Dion Nash and Shane Bond never even got their whites on, and there was equal inactivity from Shayne O'Connor.

Add to that a bizarre selection policy which inexplicably left Daryl Tuffey and Andre Adams sidelined until the 3rd Test and it could be argued that New Zealand's fightback was the greater achievement of the two teams.

Hussain pinpointed England's lack of big first innings scores as a serious failure and for that the top three batsmen must take the majority of blame.

Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan and Mark Butcher all looked capable of racking up the big hundreds required but ultimately none of them even averaged 30 in the Test series.

Graham Thorpe's 274 runs also looks thin without his 200 not out at Christchurch and Mark Ramprakash's Test career now looks washed up once more after just 77 runs at 15.40, to follow on from an equally disappointing Indian series.

On the bowling front Andrew Caddick (19 wickets at 20.11) and Matthew Hoggard (17 wickets at 23.53) both prospered on New Zealand's seamer-friendly pitches and Andrew Flintoff (nine wickets at 34.22) also chipped in with useful contributions.

Less impressive was Ashley Giles, who could only muster six scalps from 100 overs at 39.33, although his impact was always expected to be less significant than on India's drier wickets.

More worryingly for England it appears Craig White's contributions with the ball have all but disappeared and with Flintoff emerging as a genuine all-rounder it now looks as if "Chalky" has been sidelined from Hussain's preferred XI .

How they fit Gough back in remains unanswered and the conundrum surrounding James Foster and the wicketkeeper's berth will be a tricky one to resolve now that Alec Stewart is back in contention, but Hussain will have learnt a great deal about his players this winter and the results were, despite the disappointments, far from disastrous.

A 1-0 defeat in India and a 1-1 draw in New Zealand was significantly better than most had predicted before the winter began and England had genuine opportunities to win at least three more of those Tests.

But, ultimately, it was Astle who had the final say on their New Zealand leg of the winter, confirming his rightful status as Man of the Series with the catch that completed England's defeat.

How ironic then, that just two weeks earlier the same player had been pilloried for spilling a straightforward chance off Thorpe when the English batsman had just four to his name.

Thorpe went on to get 200 not out, laying the foundations for England's 98-run win, but it seems that spilt catch proved to be the catalyst that finally fired Astle into action.

Going out to bat with a personal deficit of 196 runs can't be an easy prospect but the phlegmatic 30-year-old returned to the pavilion a mere 168 balls later with 222 to his name and a credit note for +26. Not so much Catch 22 as Catch 222.

It was an amazing turn around which eventually paid dividends in the final Test and bearing that in mind it could reasonably be argued that Astle's dropped catch was not merely intrinsic to the final outcome, it was THE pivotal moment in what was a thoroughly entertaining and highly engrossing series.

4 Apr, 2002