Knight sets up England victory over Kiwis

Nick Knight and Paul Collingwood combined to guide England to a 43-run win over New Zealand in the third one day international on Wednesday.

The result leaves the Kiwis 2-1 ahead in the five-match series and restored belief in the England ranks after two big defeats in the opening games.

Knight made 80 off 129 balls as England posted 244 for five after 50 overs and then Collingwood led the England bowling attack with four wickets for 38 runs as New Zealand were skittled out for 201 runs.

England dominated from the start after being asked to bat, the option Hussain said he would have picked had he won the toss.

Marcus Trescothick hit an aggressive 41, 24 of the runs coming off just two overs, before falling to a Chris Harris catch backward of point off Chris Cairns' bowling.

Graham Thorpe contributed a run-a-ball 52, Andy Flintoff chipped in with a useful 19 and skipper Nasser Hussain, while slow to get off the mark, scored 24.

England now head to Auckland with the chance of squaring the series and with the memory of their comeback against India earlier this month to provide encouragement.

England fought back from two down against India to square the six-match one-day series three-all.

COLLINGWOOD EFFECT

Cairns was the best New Zealand bowler with three for 51, but the bowler of the game was England's Collingwood, the possessor of just three ODI wickets in his previous 15 internationals.

Collingwood swung the ball prodigiously and wrecked the middle of the New Zealand innings taking the wickets of Lou Vincent, Cairns, Harris and Andre Adams.

Kiwi skipper Stephen Fleming attempted to hold the innings together with his 76 not out, but with wickets falling at such regular intervals the writing was on the wall.

There was a brief flurry at the end when Ian Butler came in for his first international bat, with the new boy showing some batting sense and Fleming throwing the bat about. But Darren Gough snatched his wicket with a late swinging full-pitched delivery.

Mail Cricket Editor