Pietersen's century was his first on home soil but sixth ODI ton overall

England captain Paul Collingwood hailed a "phenomenal" innings from Kevin Pietersen after England's 114-run win over New Zealand at the Riverside.

Pietersen smashed 110 not out from 112 balls, including two reverse-sweep sixes off Scott Styris.

"To hit the shots he did, on what was a tricky pitch at times, set us up superbly and the boys backed him up.

"This team wants consistency and this was a near-perfect performance," a delighted Collingwood commented.

Collingwood himself hit 64 and, after Owais Shah's late 49 off 25 balls provided a brutal cameo in England's 307-5, the skipper returned to share eight wickets with Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann to wrap up the New Zealand innings for 193.

"Everyone, from the batsmen to the bowlers, adapted well and played their part," he said.

"Credit to the boys up front. Luke Wright struggled a bit but hung in there and that gave us the base upon which we could come in and give it a whack towards the end of the innings.

"The bowlers then came out, bowled cross-seam, and got a bit out of the pitch.

606: DEBATE I really hope Oram gets better soon and McCullum puts the gloves back on. That way we may see some exciting games pxdphil

Pietersen, meanwhile, admitted he was delighted to finally get a one-day century, having hit five on foreign soil.

"I looked at my stats with the coach the other day and I average 30 in England with the bat but 60 abroad, so it's about time I got a score here.

"I've batted at four, five and six, but I suggested moving up to three to the coach a couple of months back and now it's a case of me working hard at it and making it work."

And, asked whether he thought his switch-hits should be outlawed as he is effectively a right-handed batsman playing left-handed, he responded: "I don't agree at all.

"To be honest, if you're playing right-handed you shouldn't even have the ability to hit left-handers for six like I do, so no, it's not a problem."

We still have four games to turn it round, and it has to start at Edgbaston (on Wednesday) otherwise we'll be in a really big hole Daniel Vettori

"When you put a team in, you want to restrict them to a score of around 250," he said.

"You have to bowl well, and unfortunately we didn't today.

"We never really got on top - that Pietersen-Collingwood partnership took the game away from us."

However, he sounded a word of warning to any England players thinking the series was already won, saying: "We still have four games to turn it round, and it has to start at Edgbaston (on Wednesday) otherwise we'll be in a really big hole.

"We will keep asking the boys to dig deep, and there are enough experienced players in the team to be able to play better than we are at the moment."