KEY POINTS:
Battlers Matthew Bell and Mathew Sinclair live to fight another day.
The two most vulnerable members of the beaten New Zealand second test team have been retained for the deciding third international, starting on the batting motorway at Napier's McLean Park this Saturday.
The pitch at McLean Park is traditionally a chance for batsmen to fill their boots. That being the case, with little likelihood of any departure from the usual belting surface, the short odds are on a draw, although considering some of the batting seen so far don't bet on it.
But as England's captain Michael Vaughan pointed out yesterday, in cricket "five days is a long time".
New Zealand retained the same 13 from the Basin Reserve, and added promising swing bowler Tim Southee.
He is there partly as cover for Kyle Mills who has a soreness behind his left knee, but will be considered for selection in his own right .
If chosen, it will be the 19-year-old's test debut just a couple of weeks after playing in the under-19 World Cup in Malaysia and a couple of Twenty20 matches against England.
Bell hung on to his place in part because there is only one obvious alternative - Otago's Craig Cumming, who had his chance against Bangladesh in January and did not take it, but is presently in good form.
But presumably as Bell was yesterday handed the balance of the departed Lou Vincent's national contract for the remainder of the present term, scratching his name out of the national side on the same day would have taken some explaining.
Iain O'Brien has picked up the rest of Shane Bond's national contract.
Bell scratched around for a painstaking 29 in New Zealand's second innings, all at sea against the swinging ball, although he was not alone in that.
With the tour of England looming - and if he thought it swung plenty at the Basin wait until he sees Old Trafford in May - Napier might be his final chance.
Sinclair was forthright in getting his best score of the series, 39, in the second innings, before falling to a horrible shot first ball after tea.
The rest of the squad selected itself as New Zealand look to pick themselves up after England won the second test by 126 runs, bouncing back emphatically from their 189-run thumping in the first test at Hamilton.
There might be a temptation to ensure sufficient batting depth to make avoiding defeat the first objective in Napier, however captain Daniel Vettori insisted that will not be the mindset.
"Our style of play is attacking by nature so we have to keep with that," he said yesterday. "The way our guys tend to play leads to attacking cricket, it leads to three-and-a-half to four runs an over, and that normally leads to a result test.
"To win the one-day series and the tests against a very good England team, when people thought we weren't going to compete, will be a huge result for us."
New Zealand began the final day at 242 for six, still 196 short of what would have been the greatest run chase in test history.
Once Vettori edged the outstanding Ryan Sidebottom to fourth slip in the second over, New Zealand's remote chance was gone.
Brendon McCullum battled on until noon, and Mark Gillespie stuck with him for almost an hour, before the wicketkeeper holed out at 85.
It was a test which swung on one session, the last on the opening day, when England, from 136 for five, got to 291 without further loss, courtesy of a gritty, bold and often fortuitous stand between man of the match Tim Ambrose and Paul Collingwood.
From there, New Zealand were behind on points. England's fast-medium trio of Sidebottom, James Anderson and Stuart Broad produced high-calibre work in helpful conditions.
The pitch ensured there would be a result, giving the quick bowlers help throughout. But there might be an inquiry among New Zealand Cricket heads as to how they came to a test 1-0 up in the series and turned on a strip which played into the tourists' hands.
England had good reason to rejoice after only their second win overseas in the last 17, and their first since Mumbai in March 2006.
