Comic relief all in the delivery There may have been more spectacularly awful, wide or nonplussing balls delivered in the history of international cricket, but few have caused as much mirth as Tim Bresnan's ballooning effort for England against New Zealand at Southampton on Sunday night. Apparently attempting a slow bouncer, one of the more recent tricks added to the armoury of limited-overs fast bowlers, Bresnan almost hit his foot with the first ball of his eighth over. The ball ballooned more than 15 feet in the air, then fell back to earth almost vertically, just outside the off stump of Kiwi middle-order star Ross Taylor. The in-form right hander, mesmerised by the ponderous parabola of the ball's journey, attempted a delicate dab, missed, and the ball rolled to the wicket-keeper Jos Buttler. Cue mirth. Taylor and Bresnan laughed. Even England captain Alastair Cook saw the funny side. After all, it was a rare dot ball in a run feast that would eventually deliver a match-winning total of 3/359. Taylor smashed the next, normally pitched and paced, delivery for four with a square cut, and he and his teammates proceeded to add 132 runs in the subsequent, final 10 overs of their innings. Ugly, but it worked: New Zealand's Ross Taylor, left, tries to hit Tim Bresnan's slow, high delivery. Bresnan might have been advised to keep up with the trick deliveries - he ended up with 0-73 off his 10 overs, before being run out for a duck after facing just two balls. Underdogs New Zealand swept the opening two matches of the series, a glorified warm-up for the upcoming Champions Trophy one-day series, with the final game to be played on Wednesday at Trent Bridge. Unheralded opener Martin Guptill excelled in the absence of frontline England seamers Stuart Broad and Steve Finn, making 103 not out and a record New Zealand score of 189 not out. Australians looking for signs of hope for the Ashes series starting in July in England should not get too carried away with "shell-shocked" England's temporary woes. The Poms belted the Kiwis in their two Tests, and Broad and Finn should be plying their wares again shortly. Perhaps a dearth of potent back-up pace bowlers might be exposed later in the series. And the London Telegraph's Scyld Berry has identified four areas the hosts need to work on - captaincy, opening batting, fielding and batting against short-pitched bowling. Tim Bresnan wanted the world to write about his extraordinary delivery ... so we have. About the only real glimmer for hopeful Australian fans recently was England coach Andy Flower's bizarre ban on his players discussing the Ashes until the end of the Champions Trophy. It may not be required now, with a once-again stern Alastair Cook determined to avoid a whitewash against the Kiwis, and any more embarrassment in the Champions Trophy.