View photos: NZ v England, fifth one-dayerKEY POINTS:
The ghosts of McLean Park were laid to rest in Christchurch last night, with New Zealand starting and finishing the job - just.
Yes, they had a little help from the rain, the umpires and Messers Duckworth and Lewis but 3-1 looks a comprehensive series win in the books.
When they left the field as the heavens opened at 9.15pm, the Black Caps were on 213-6, needing just 30 runs off 78 balls to secure the win by conventional methods.
Instead, the Duckworth Lewis system suggested they won by 34 runs, given they were well ahead of the asking rate when they went off for rain.
The players were going to return for four overs at 9.45pm but were tharwted by the incessant rain.
In what would have been somewhat comical circumstances, the Black Caps were already ahead of the target as long as they didn't lose any wickets.
Again New Zealand provided drama when it appeared there would be none.
A second successive Scott Styris brain-fade sparked an England revival from an impossible situation.
In Napier he holed out in the deep. This time he flat-batted a drive straight to Stuart Broad at mid-off when the total was 196-3, chasing just 243 for victory.
That brought Daniel Flynn to the crease and he perished in his debut for a duck as his second ball started reverse swinging.
Jacob Oram fell next ball and Daniel Vettori looked lucky to survive on one when he appeared to nick James Anderson behind - Brent Bowden remained unmoved.
All the time Ross Taylor, known more for his talent than application, held firm at the other end, providing a cool head and a little sanity.
Brendon McCullum provided the sort of start from which New Zealand should win 99 times out of 100. His 77 from just 43 balls was more like an explosion than an innings.
His extraordinary avalanche of boundaries at the top of the innings (five fours and six sixes) meant the malfunctioning middle order could stick the engine into third gear and stay there.
McCullum might have fetched a rich pay-day in Mumbai on Wednesday but last night proved that, when he is on, he is close to priceless for this team.
His opening partnership with Jesse Ryder has flourished. They put on 304 runs in this series at an average of 76 for the first wicket - a true rags to riches story given the paucity of runs at the top of the order during the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.
To be brutal, there hasn't been a lot of great cricket in this series, with Napier's 340-all tie standing out as an exception.
England probably felt like they got out of jail at McLean Park. They would have toasted their great escape. Judging by their performance in the field yesterday, they kept drinking all the way to AMI Stadium.
They dropped McCullum on 30 and 31, the second one barely registering as a chance as Stuart Broad somehow contrived to not lay a hand on a skied hoick that ended on the turf at third man.
It must have been a source of some amusement to McCullum who engaged in a running verbal battle with Broad, which surely won't be allowed under the ICC's new stringent sledging policy.
McCullum was dropped again on 77 by Paul Collingwood but bowled next ball - a pretty ordinary ending to an incendiary innings.
It wasn't just the catches, though.
England were guilty of chronic misfielding until Kevin Pietersen, so out of touch with the bat this series, made a direct hit to dismiss Ryder who, comically, got tangled up with his bat.
As he stretched out to make his ground, his bat got stuck in the ground and there was little chance of him making his crease without a long piece of wood to help him.
New Zealand's fielding was probably the difference yesterday. They backed up their bowlers superbly when the field was in at the top of the order, and allowed Vettori to shuffle his bowlers.
This shuffling went a little too far when Ryder found himself bowling the 48th and 50th overs, with England profiting by taking 31 off those 12 deliveries.
They were mainly thanks to Dimitri Mascarenhas, so inexplicably overlooked early in the series.
He took 29 from 12 deliveries. Along with Luke Wright, also overlooked earlier in the series, they provided the only impetus to the innings.
