England collapsed to be all out for just 120 in their 90-run loss to New Zealand in Tuesday's tri-series one-day international at the Adelaide Oval.

England looked to have the match under control when they bowled New Zealand out for 210 before their own batting crumbled in less than 38 overs.

James Franklin ripped through England's top-order then Daniel Vettori destroyed the tail to finish with 4-24 after Jacob Oram had rescued New Zealand's innings with 86 in his first match back from injury.

Andrew Flintoff captured four wickets for England before the tourists limped to their lowest total yet on the humiliating tour of Australia.

"We can look through all different reasons but we've just got to play better," Flintoff told a news conference.

"We were confident we could chase 210 down...but the batting didn't fire again."

New Zealand had not won a match in the one-day series until Tuesday, but earned a bonus point because of the size of the margin to leapfrog England into second place in the standings behind Australia, who are unbeaten at the halfway stage.

"It's not often you get 210 and a bonus point," New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming said.

"It was touch and go halfway through but we were always confident.

"We felt it was a tough wicket for England to bat on and that proved to be the case."

England had New Zealand in all sorts of trouble when they reduced them to 67-5 in the 24th over on a lifeless pitch that made fast scoring almost impossible.

Flintoff captured the wicket of Fleming then polished off the tail to finish with four for 21 from his 10 overs.

James Anderson took two wickets, but ruined his figures with an expensive last over that yielded 14 runs while Jon Lewis, Monty Panesar and Paul Collingwood bagged one each.

RESPECTABLE TOTAL

Collingwood also held three catches and was involved in the run out of Franklin as the Kiwis were bowled out on the final ball of the 50th over.

New Zealand were at risk of falling well short of 200 after Fleming (20), Peter Fulton (24) and Ross Taylor (15) all made starts but failed to go on with the job.

But Oram, playing his first international match since injuring a hamstring, smashed six fours and two sixes to post his highest one-day score.

He shared a 120-run partnership with Brendon McCullum for the sixth wicket before England mopped up the last five batsmen for just 23 runs in four and a half overs.

England were bowled out for 129 at Adelaide in the second Ashes test against Australia last month but fell nine runs short of that after another batting collapse.

Their chances of winning were already in trouble when they lost Mal Loye, Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell before the total had passed 32, but Irish-born batsman Ed Joyce offered a glimmer of hope with a determined 47.

However, no-one else made it to 20 and only two other players made double figures as the last six wickets tumbled for 28 runs.

England's next game is against Australia at Adelaide on Friday while New Zealand's play the hosts at Perth on Sunday.