Stand-in wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow produced a nerveless display as England clinched victory in the one-day international series against New Zealand with an unlikely win in the fifth ODI at Chester-le-Street.
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The enthralling first four matches had been dominated by the batsmen on both sides with big 300+ scores a regular occurrence, but today it was the bowlers who had their way.
New Zealand had averaged over 350 in the previous three matches but couldn't get close to that today as England restricted them to 283-9.
The rain then arrived at Chester-le-Street and heavily delayed the hosts' reply. Play didn't resume until 5.30pm in the evening, with Duckworth/Lewis calculating that England needed 192 from 26 overs at 7.4 runs per over.
Mitchell Santner ripped apart England's in-form trio of Alex Hales, Joe Root and Eoin Morgan as wickets tumbled in the early stages.
Hales was gone in the second over, pulling Santner to square leg where Kane Williamson took an acrobatic one-handed catch.
Root was then stumped by Luke Ronchi two overs later before England's leading scorer in the series, Morgan, went for a golden duck by finding Martin Guptill on the boundary.
Local favourite Ben Stokes was next in and he hit a quick-fire 17 before driving one down the throat of Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum off the bowling of Ben Wheeler.
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Jason Roy had seen four partners come and go, but he was next to depart as he gifted debutant Andrew Mathieson his first ODI wicket on his first ball at international level by looping one up for Guptill.
England had been reduced to 45-5, but all was not lost as Bairstow, who had replaced the injured Jos Buttler, and Sam Billings gave the hosts some hope with a sixth-wicket partnership of 80.
The pair were dragging England towards victory but their partnership was broken when a pull from Billings off the bowling of Matt Henry was caught by the diving Ross Taylor.
David Willey was next in and added seven to the scoreboard before squirming a Wheeler delivery to Santner. Bairstow was still going strong at the other end and he saw England home with Yorkshire teammate Adil Rashid (12*).
Bairstow hit the winning runs with an over to spare, finishing on 83 not out from 60 balls. He could have easily gone a couple of overs earlier, but Santner crucially dropped an easy catch on the boundary.
Despite the shortened fifth match today, the series is still the first five-match ODI encounter to have more than a total of 3000 runs.
Pascal Lemesre
