Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson both struck hundreds as New Zealand earned a hard-fought three-wicket win over England in the third one-day international at Rose Bowl, Southampton on Sunday to grab 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Taylor (110) and Williamson (118) shared a third wicket stand of 206 as the visitors overhauled 303-run target with 11 deliveries to spare.
Earlier, England were bundled out for 303 in 45.2 overs, despite reaching 288-5 thanks to the half-centuries of skipper Eoin Morgan (71), Ben Stokes (68) and Joe Root (54).
Blackcaps’ got off to a poor start in still chase as Martin Gutpill was trapped lbw by seamer David Willy on the eighth ball of innings.
Pacer Mark Wood removed skipper Brendon McCullum in same fashion three overs later before Taylor and Williamson joined hands to start rebuilding the innings.
The initially concentrated on rotation of strike but once built momentum, hit classy strokes all over the park.
Williamson brought up his seventh ODI century off 88 balls. Studded with 12 boundaries and a six, his 113-ball knock came to an end when he was caught by Wood off Willey.
Taylor, dropped on 67 and 72 off Wood bowling, completed his second successive and 14 overall ODI hundred off 105 balls before being bowled out off Willey. His 123-ball knock featured 12 boundaries.
A 35-run fith-wicket stand between Michael Santner (21) and Luke Ronchi (13) ensured a successful chase for visitors.
Earlier, having elected to bat, England found themselves wobbling at 34-2 following the dismissals of Jason Roy (9) and Alex Hales (23) before Morgan and Root shared 105 runs for the third-wicket.
The pair separated when Root misjudged an inswiniging delivery from Mitchell Santner which nettled his stumps.
Morgan completed his third straight half-century of the series off 67 balls before being clean bowled by Williamson.
The dismissal of Jos Buttler (13) off paceman Tim Southee left the hosts 227-5 in 37 overs.
This time, Ben Stokes (68) and with Sam Billings (34) launched another recovery and put on 51 runs for the fifth-wicket.
On that stage, the hosts looked on track to a 350-plus total but the dismissal of Billings off left-arm seamer Ben Wheeler triggered a collapse in their as they lost their remaining five wickets for 14 runs in 23 deliveries.
The fourth ODI will be played at Nottingham on June 17.
