By Jonathan Agnew BBC cricket correspondent

To win five out of the last six Tests is quite an achievement, and while the improvement in England's standard on the field is clear, the team's confidence is now soaring.

This is what success brings, and it has been a considerable time since an England team carried such obvious self-belief.

This will pay huge dividends with the developing players. In this group, I would include Andrew Flintoff, Andrew Strauss, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Geraint Jones.

They will all benefit from playing in a unit which believes it can win, even from the most unlikely situations.

The bedraggled New Zealanders follow in England's wake

And if the key players can remain injury free, suddenly the prospect of facing Australia next summer does not appear to be quite as daunting as it did only six months ago.

Jones is a great case in point. There was the possibility that success with the bat would improve his confidence in his wicket-keeping.

The evidence of that was clear as he sprung to his right to produce a quite brilliant catch in front of Marcus Trescothick at first slip.

He then ran out Chris Martin with a direct hit to finish off the New Zealand innings. Jones is a determined individual and, having received much of his cricketing education in Australia, is also as hard as nails.

Now he appears to be set for a successful international career, he is not the sort of individual to allow anyone or anything to disturb his progress.

New Zealand's plight continues. Quite how they thought they could play a three Test series with 13 men - plus the recuperating Shane Bond - is beyond me.

Chaotic

Clearly it was a disastrous decision that has now left their squad in a mess, and giving the impression of being chaotic.

James Franklin was spotted bowling in the nets after the match ended and, being a strapping left-arm swing bowler, he might have bowled rather better in this match than some of the others, whose confidence has faded away.

Somehow they must find 11 fit players - including a spinner - to put out on the field at Trent Bridge on Thursday.