KEY POINTS:
LONDON - England remain clear favourites to take an unbeatable one-day cricket series lead over New Zealand here tomorrow, despite a momentum shift that has the tourists confident they've gained the upper hand.
Both sides arrived in London with one lamenting a failure to handle pressure and the
other buoyant from a hard-fought victory, and promising further improvement.
Although the roles were reversed for the first time in this five-week contest, with New Zealand winning by 22 runs in Bristol last Saturday, the hosts remained the bookmakers' favourites for the fourth one-dayer at The Oval tomorrow night (9.45pm NZT).
Leading bookie William Hill had England at the equivalent of $1.53 while New Zealand were at $2.37, with the series level 1-1 with two matches to play.
New Zealand are set to welcome back key allrounder Jacob Oram after a solid training session with bat and ball, pending a final fitness assessment.
Having missed the Twenty20 demolition by England in Manchester and the first three one-dayers because of a hamstring strain, Oram felt it was a good time to be returning.
"We're starting to show now that we're a good one-day side, and that's considering our better players haven't really fired yet," he said.
"If we can get that going then I think the series is definitely here for us to take.
"England would have been very confident after the test series because they played well and they took the game from us, then had a good match in Durham.
"But one-day cricket's all about momentum and we managed to wrestle it away from them at Edgbaston and continue that at Bristol. If we can continue that we can take the series, I'm sure."
New Zealand have won nine of the 15 one-dayer between the sides in the past five years, and overall they have 32 wins to England's 29.
New Zealand's batting lineup is yet to fire as a unit and Oram identified that as a key to their chances on a pitch which often been a haven for batsmen.
Last year India chased down 317 to beat England at the ground, and in 2006 Sri Lanka defended 319 to beat the hosts by 46 runs.
The past two matches in this series showed how much depends on Brendon McCullum at the top.
His cool-headed innings got New Zealand to the brink of victory in Birmingham, then in Bristol he flayed 17 off 11 balls before being caught as the top order collapsed to 49 for five.
"I thought Brendon was going to play one of his memorable knocks the other day but it got cut off. He's hitting the ball sweetly, and if he gets going he'll be away," Oram said.
"I haven't seen Ross Taylor in better form, I know he hasn't scored massive amounts of runs but you see the way his feet are moving and how hard he's hitting the ball, surely he's not far away.
"Jamie How's like that too, he's hitting the ball well, it's just he can't convert a start to a big one. We're not far away but we have to make sure it counts."
Grant Elliott and Kyle Mills bailed New Zealand out of trouble in Bristol and young Tim Southee added the polish with four wickets, leaving England uncertain after being dismissed for 160.
Seamer Stuart Broad, who looked to have won England the Bristol match with a 10-over spell of two for 14, admitted their mood was "pretty downbeat" after Saturday.
"They kept putting us under pressure and we didn't handle it that very well," he said.
Still, New Zealand are seeking their first one-day win against a test-playing nation at The Oval, having lost to the West Indies in 1975, England in 1983 and 1990, and Australia in 2004.
- NZPA
