Collingwood says sorry

Grant Elliott trudges off after being given run out against England at the Brit Oval

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England captain Paul Collingwood apologised to the New Zealand players after the Kiwis' dramatic last-ball victory at the Brit Oval.

The New Zealand successful pursuit of 246 to win in the fourth NatWest one-day international will be remembered for the run-out of Grant Elliott following an accidental collision.

With 26 required, Elliott fell to the floor with bowler Ryan Sidebottom, who ran across the batsman's path to field the ball in his follow-through.

Elliott had bottom-edged into the pitch and was called through for a single by eighth-wicket partner Kyle Mills.

With Elliott poleaxed by the accidental body-check, Ian Bell swooped to throw to Kevin Pietersen, who removed the bails at the bowler's end.

Collingwood said: “In the heat of the moment, a quick decision had to be made.

"Both players collided. I asked Siddy (Sidebottom) if he was going for the ball and he said 100 percent that he was and that there was no intent or anything like that.

“The umpires asked if I wanted to uphold my appeal and, after what Siddy said, I said ‘we are still appealing’.

“When you are in the heat of the battle like that, you’ve got to make a decision. I’ve never been in that position before as captain.

“It is a difficult one to make and in hindsight when you come off the pitch, or when I go back to the hotel room, I’ll probably put my hand up and say I probably made the wrong decision.

“That is something I’ll have to cope with and have to live with. I apologised to the New Zealand lads, we’ve shaken hands and hopefully there are no relationships in danger.”

“It’s great being able to look with hindsight and have time to reflect, maybe a different decision would have been made."

Collingwood hopes the incident does not sour the relationship between the two teams and added: “They know my thoughts - we have always had a good relationship and we’ll take it from there.”

Paul Collingwood admitted an England victory in the wake of the incident would have left a "bad taste"

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New Zealand captain Vettori echoed Collingwood’s comments after being caught up in the “raw emotion” of the occasion and after he accepted the England captain’s apology hopes the teams can move on from the issue.

“Firstly, I’d just like to apologise for my reactions and some of our team’s reactions at the end of the game," said Vettori. "They were probably a little bit over the top.

“You saw us after the result and it took a while for us to calm down and for clear minds to prevail in the end. It wasn’t the way we wanted to act as a New Zealand team.

“But hopefully we’ve got there in the end and I’ve spoken to Paul Collingwood about it and coach Peter Moores.

“I was incensed with what happened and the whole group of players were. We couldn’t understand it, sitting up there on the balcony.

“But Paul has come and spoken to us, apologised and acted in a contrite way. We’ll move on from the situation and hopefully it doesn’t happen again.

“Paul said he had a split second to make the decision and I understand he’s admitted it was the wrong one to make. I suppose, because we’ve won the game we’ll move on a lot quicker.

“But also the fact he’s apologised and admitted he is wrong means we can move forward and head to Lord’s in the right spirit. Now we know these things can’t happen in the future."

Collingwood admitted he would have looked back with little satisfaction had England snatched victory after the Elliott incident.

He said: “For us to scrap back and defend 245 would have left us pretty delighted immediately after the game.

“But I think as captain if we had won, I would certainly have looked back at the game and there would certainly have been a bad taste in my mouth.”