Collingwood hit the fastest 50 by an Englishman in one-day cricket

The Kiwis looked set to reach their target of 341 in Napier, but England staged an extraordinary recovery.

Collingwood said: "We were dead and buried going into the last six overs.

"Jamie How played fantastically for his 139 but our character was great, we got our yorkers right and put them under pressure. There were lots of nerves."

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England were put in to bat on what looked like a fantastic batting track and rattled up 340-6 in their 50 overs - their third highest one-day total - with Collingwood smashing the fastest fifty by an England player, taking just 24 deliveries to achieve the feat.

But New Zealand looked to have chased the huge total down to perfection with How reaching his first one-day ton - before a thrilling final six overs which saw four wickets fall.

And with the last throw of the dice with New Zealand needing seven to win, Collingwood chose Luke Wright to bowl the final over, his first action with the ball in the match.

If I had just hit those stumps, we were a millimetre or so away from winning the game - I will probably be dreaming about it for many years to come Paul Collingwood on his missed run-out chance

"I had to gamble from seven overs out," Collingwood told BBC Sport.

"We were one over short because I had finished my bowling and I was thinking 'do we leave Wright to the last over'?

"We may well as take it to the last over because anything can happen as that's where the pressure is and so it proved.

"Wright is quite a relaxed guy but he likes the stage and he wanted to be the hero."

England now have the chance to draw the series, if they can beat the Kiwis in Christchurch on Saturday.

But Collingwood knows how close they came to winning in Napier, when he just missed running out Kyle Mills by a whisker with the final ball.

"If I had just hit those stumps, we were a millimetre or so away from winning the game.

"I will probably be dreaming about it for many years to come, if only, but we will take the tie in the end.

"It was just a fantastic game of cricket."

606: DEBATE Collingwood summed it up by saying it was fantastic advert for the game Anna T - BBC Sport

Vettori admitted his side regarded the tie as like a defeat after they came so close to wrapping up with the series.

"It probably feels like a loss because it was a game we should have comfortably won from the positions we put ourselves in, but you've got to give England some credit for the way they bowled in the last six overs," he said.

"We probably just threw it away in the last six and were lucky to get the tie in the end. It is a result-based game and after 44 overs we needed something like 42 from 36 balls and on that wicket it should be reasonably comfortable.

"But you can reflect over the whole game and the spectacle of it and I thought Jamie How's innings was one of the best one-day innings I've ever seen so I think cricket people would have loved watching that game."