Peter Moores has insisted England were not to blame for the umpires making the controversial decision to end Wednesday’s second one-day international at Edgbaston one over short of a result.

England took 83 minutes to bowl 19 overs and prevented the weather-hit encounter with New Zealand being completed before rain ended play.

Match referee Javagal Srinath has since cleared England and umpires Ian Gould and Steve Davis after the match finished with New Zealand 127 for two and needing seven runs in the next over to win under the Duckworth-Lewis method, providing they did not lose another wicket.

But coach Moores believes his side should be absolved of any blame for the finish and for the rules which stated there had to be a 30-minute break between innings; rules which also contributed to the match running out of time and which the International Cricket Council hastily amended last night.

“I didn’t think we slowed the game down,” he said. “There were some stoppages out of [captain] Paul Collingwood’s control, we had quite a long delay just before the end where they had to check whether the ball went for four with Jimmy Anderson’s stop on the boundary; there’s not a lot we can do about that.

“We were bowling within the timeframe required and that is quite hard in one-day cricket. We can’t control the fact that we came off for rain. It was difficult batting, Tim Ambrose came off and said he was finding it difficult to see the ball during the over before (the end) because the rain was coming into the players’ eyes as well as it being dark. But everyone wanted to play.”

The controversial decision ensures England play at Bristol tomorrow with a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, although it will have not helped appease the 16,000 Edgbaston crowd that was disgruntled at the handling of the situation.

The England coach also revealed that left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom, who missed Wednesday’s match with a stiff back, had received an anti-inflammatory injection and his fitness will be reviewed today.

Following the Edgbaston controversy, the ICC last night gave umpires the power to reduce the length of the interval between innings for the remainder of the series. The final part of regulation 15.1 has been changed to read: “Where the innings of the side batting first is delayed or interrupted, the umpires will reduce the length of the interval. In the event of time being lost (playing time lost less any extra time provided) up to and including 60 minutes in aggregate, the length of the interval shall be reduced from 45 to 30 minutes.

“In the event of more than 60 minutes being lost in aggregate, the duration of the interval shall be agreed mutually by the umpires and both captains, subject to no interval being of more than 30 minutes’ duration or less than ten minutes’ duration. In the event of disagreement, the length of the interval shall be determined by the match referee. The ICC chief executives’ committee will examine the matter when it meets in Dubai at the end of the month with a view to securing the best longer-term result for the playing conditions relating to this matter.”