England have taken a 2-1 lead in their One-Day international series against New Zealand as they held their nerve in a tense finish at Wellington.
In a low-scoring game, the Kiwis, chasing 235 for victory, needed 15 off the final Chris Woakes over for victory.
But despite Kane Williamson, who hit a superb 112 not out, sending Woakes third ball of that over for six, he could not repeat the heroics as the hosts came up four runs short.
The result rewarded a determined England performance on a surface which proved difficult for batting after they had been put in by their opponents.
No less than nine England players got to double figures, but only captain Eoin Morgan got close to reaching a half century as he was out for 48, with Ben Stokes making 39 and Jos Buttler 29.
For the New Zealanders, Ish Sodhi – who will return to the Notts Outlaws for this summer’s Vitality Blast competition – claimed 3-53 and Trent Boult took 2-47.
In reply, New Zealand were going well as Colin Munro (49) and Willliamson put on 68 for the second wicket to carry their team to 80-1.
However, Adil Rashid bagged the wicket of the former in a tight 10-over spell of 2-34 before Mooen Ali snared Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls and Colin de Grandhomme cheaply in his spell of 3-36 to put Englland on top at 103-6.
Williamson then joined forces with Mitch Santner (41) in a 96-run seventh wicket stand to set up a tense finale, but Woakes kept his cool to concede just 10 runs off the final six deliveries to steer England home.
The fourth ODI takes place in Dunedin on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Samit Patel took 3-17 to help his Islamabad United to a dramatic Pakistan Super League victory over Lahore Qalanders.
Chasing 122 for victory, Lahore were bowled out for 121 before Andre Russell helped Islamabad chase down 16 in the Super Over Eliminator with a four and a six.
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