KEY POINTS:
Luke Wright had not bowled all day when Paul Collingwood tossed him the ball for the final over of yesterday's cliffhanger at McLean Park.
"You can be our hero today," he told the young allrounder.
"Yeah, I can't wait," he replied.
And Wright did his skipper proud, doing what a pack of other bowlers were largely unable to do throughout the day - holding his nerve and keeping the ball full and straight in a rousing finale.
New Zealand needed seven with four wickets standing and came up one short. Kyle Mills scrambled through for a desperately tight leg bye on the final ball to seal the tie, as Collingwood flung himself down in a bid to run him out and pinch the win. It was the two teams' second tie in Napier, England's 340 for six being matched by New Zealand's 340 for seven. The previous tie was in 1997.
In a game which often felt like watching a highlights package, there were 58 fours and 17 sixes.
New Zealand cannot lose the five-match series when the final game is played in Christchurch on Saturday. However they'll feel they should have wrapped it up yesterday. The body language as the players left the field suggested England were delighted at the outcome; New Zealand less so.
"We should have comfortably won," Vettori said. "But the way England bowled in the last six overs, we were fortunate to get the tie."
One more run would have given New Zealand three successful chases in excess of 330 in the past year, the first two against Australia at Auckland and Hamilton.
And while they did tremendously to get to the point of victory, they will feel the job should have beencompleted.
Jamie How provided the star turn, after England hit their third highest ODI total. His maiden international century was outstanding and came within a smidgeon of getting New Zealand home.
The Black Caps' chase was in part down to bold batting, players trusting the superb hard, fast surface. But England's bowlers also let Collingwood down until the closing minutes.
They delivered a decent serving of tripe for much of the innings, perhaps thinking 341 was beyond New Zealand's reach. On this ground, they should have known better.
But then New Zealand got the wobbles. Scott Styris, Peter Fulton and Jacob Oram departed in quick succession, New Zealand needed 33 from the last six overs; 17 from the last two.
Ryan Sidebottom and James Anderson delivered telling overs before the denouement. Anderson's direct hit ran out How and Vettori needed two off the last ball to win the match, but Wright was bang on the job.
At times, the English bowlers seemed clueless at finding appropriate length. Not that New Zealand's were much better earlier in the day. Bowlers might consider strike action when they see Napier pop up on the schedule such is it a batsman's manor.
How's innings was loaded with powerful strokes to the onside and spoke of a growing confidence. He faced 116 balls for his 139 in a massive confidence booster.
Yesterday was the fourth time in the past six ODIs at McLean Park that at least one team has passed 320; all six have put up at least 270.
England's openers Alastair Cook and Phil Mustard discovered early they were standing on friendly turf and filled their boots.
Cook got lucky early, when Brendon McCullum dropped him off Chris Martin. As misses go it was a shocker.
The openers scored 158, and Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen carried on where they'd left off at Eden Park, however Collingwood was in a class of his own.
Seeing the ball like a pumpkin. He cracked an unbeaten 54 off 30 balls including six sixes. In his past two innings, he's hit 124 runs of 80 balls without being dismissed.
VETTORI FEARS ENGLAND HAVE MOMENTUM
New Zealand talked about chasing down a "gettable" 341 at halftime in yesterday's ODI thriller at McLean Park.
Had they got there against England it would have been New Zealand's second highest successful chase, after their 350 for nine against Australia last year.
Although it appeared daunting, New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said there was confidence in the dressing room.
"We knew it was a very good score but we know what the wicket is like, and the short square boundaries allow you to score quickly."
Vettori said he began the final over, when seven were needed, aiming for an early boundary.
"We probably did it pretty comfortably until the second last ball [when centurymaker Jamie How was run out at the bowler's end]."
He praised the effort of England medium pacer Luke Wright, called on to bowl the 50th over, and his first of the match, with the heat on.
Vettori suspected England, even though they can't win the series in Christchurch on Saturday, would now have the momentum. "Our first 44 overs were just impeccable, a wonderful display of batting," referring to the point where England grew legs and New Zealand wobbled.
England captain Paul Collingwood praised How's 139 as "fantastic" and the New Zealand batsmen for their pacing of the innings.
"You do fancy your chances when you get 340 on the board. But with the boundaries being so short we weren't counting our chickens," he said.
As for How he said it was "a bit of a blur". "While it's great to get 100 it would have been nice to chip a few more boundaries at the end."
