Cricket News: New Zealand steal victory off last ball

LONDON (Reuters) - New Zealand stole an extraordinary one-wicket victory over England in the fourth one-day international at The Oval on Wednesday with an overthrow off the final ball.
With two runs required and one ball remaining, number 11 Mark Gillespie squeezed a full-pitched delivery from Luke Wright into the off-side. Graeme Swann's throw missed the stumps with nobody backing up and Gillespie and Kyle Mills scampered the winning runs.
New Zealand finished on 246 for nine from 50 overs after dismissing England for 245 from 49.4 overs.
England appeared to have the game won through a cruel piece of misfortune to New Zealand all-rounder Grant Elliott who was run out while lying on his back after a shuddering collision with bowler Ryan Sidebottom.
The New Zealand players looked on in disbelief when Elliott was given out after an England appeal and as he walked slowly to the dressing rooms scattered booing erupted around the ground.
Captain Daniel Vettori and his team mates refused to shake hands with their counterparts after the match but a potentially nasty diplomatic impasse was averted when England Paul Collingwood admitted after the match he had been wrong to appeal.
"In hindsight I might have made the wrong decision," Collingwood told Sky television. "I will have to live with it."
Vettori accepted Collingwood's apology. "There was a bit of raw emotion at the end," he said. "I apologise to Paul and his team, now we have to move on."
New Zealand, beaten 2-0 in the three-test series, now take an unbeatable 2-1 lead into the final one-day match at Lord's on Saturday. The second game was declared a no-result.
STYRIS PROFITS
Earlier, man-of-the-match Scott Styris was dropped three times from chances of varying difficulty en route to New Zealand's top score of 69 while Jacob Oram, playing for the first time in the series, batted with a fluent authority.
Styris, who now limits his energies solely to the one-day game, was dropped on nought, 27 and 28, unfurling some classic off-drives in the meantime.
But after Oram was caught for 38 and Styris run out from an excellent piece of fielding by Swann, New Zealand faltered.
Elliott steadied the innings before his unfortunate run-out and it was left to Mills for the second match in a row to lead a late rally with an unbeaten 25 from 27 balls including a mighty six off Collingwood.
England owed their modest total primarily to an enterprising sixth wicket partnership of 75 between Ravi Bopara (58) and Owais Shah (63).
New Zealand enjoyed a huge slice of good fortune when Kevin Pietersen essayed an ambitious pull shot to the second ball he faced from Mark Gillespie. He skied the ball behind the bowler where Tim Southee gratefully grasped the catch.
Shah struck Southee for a six measured at 97 metres and took another off Vettori. Bopara started nervously before playing some fluent shots through the off, reaching his second international one-day half-century from 69 balls.
He was finally out chipping a slower ball from Gillespie to Oram at mid-on, and when Shah was run out by a direct hit on the stumps at the bowler's end by Gillespie the England innings fell away.