[9] New Zealand fought back through top-scorer Ross Taylor, who hit a fast-paced 66 off 72 balls before being trapped LBW to Anderson, and Kane Williamson, who ended the day unbeaten on 44.

Dean Brownlie's was the last wicket of the day to fall, bringing captain Brendon McCullum to the crease with New Zealand on 153/4 at the close of play.

With a 25-run lead, England knew they would need to open up a decent margin over New Zealand in their second innings to take the match away from the tourists.

[12] On the fourth morning, Southee went on to tear through the English lower order, which included an out-of-sorts Ian Bell, who had spent most of the previous day recovering from flu-like symptoms.

Watling was not helped by a knee injury he had picked up on day 3 that meant McCullum had to keep wicket for the rest of the innings, but he nevertheless came out to bat, only to be caught in the slips off Anderson for 13.

Wagner's wicket was the last to fall; it looked as though he would be caught after hitting the ball straight up in the air to long leg, but the fielder missed the catch.

The pair continued on the morning of the fourth day, reaching a total of 134 for the second wicket (the biggest partnership of the series) before Cook was out caught to Williamson for 130 – his 25th Test hundred.

Trott himself reached 76 before edging a wide ball from Wagner to a diving McCullum, and Root and Bairstow each added quarter-centuries en route to a declaration at 287/5.

[19] England went into the 1st ODI missing two of their four-man bowling attack, with Stuart Broad (knee) and Finn (shin) ruled out through injury.

[21] Despite the low target for New Zealand to chase, England got off to a perfect start with two wickets for James Anderson in the first over, both Luke Ronchi and Kane Williamson getting out for ducks.

It was a mistake that would prove costly for England, as Guptill went on to put on successive 100-run stands for the second and third wickets with Williamson (55) and Taylor (60) on his way to a New Zealand record 189 not out off 155 balls.

Root and Morgan both went for scores in the 20s, but the tail was found wanting as only Woakes (13) and Anderson (28) from the last six batsmen managed to reach double-figures.

Trott made a valiant attempt to make up for his dropped catch off Guptill earlier in the day with an unbeaten 109 off 104 balls, but with wickets falling all around him, it was too big a task for him to manage by himself.

[23] With the series decided and their first ICC Champions Trophy matches only a few days later, both England and New Zealand chose to reshuffle their sides for the final ODI.

England dropped Dernbach and Woakes in favour of Ravi Bopara and James Tredwell, while Anderson and Swann were rested to make way for the returning Broad and Finn.

The departure of Root and Bell in quick succession meant that both Bopara and Morgan were yet to score as the mandatory powerplay overs began; however, they both survived that five-over spell and went on to contribute vital runs to the total.

[24] New Zealand started their response quickly, but the reintroduction of Broad paid dividends for England when he got the wicket of Ronchi in the sixth over.

[24] Following the third ODI, proceedings were delayed by the Champions Trophy, in which New Zealand and England were both drawn in Group A alongside Australia and Sri Lanka.

Following victory over Sri Lanka and a wash-out against Australia,[25] New Zealand met England at Cardiff in their final match of the group stage.

Among the new names in the squad were Kevin Pietersen, returning to international cricket for the first time since March, Zimbabwe-born Gary Ballance, and Boyd Rankin, who had previously played for Ireland in both the ODI and T20I forms of the game.

England won the toss and opted to field, and captain Eoin Morgan – standing in for Stuart Broad – handed Rankin the opening over.

With New Zealand at 1/1 after just four balls, the pressure was on, but Hamish Rutherford (62) and captain Brendon McCullum (68) managed to salvage the innings with a 114-run stand for the second wicket.

An unbeaten 30 from Ravi Bopara, Buttler's quick-fire 17 and a six off the first ball of the final over from Ben Stokes got England to within five runs of the New Zealand total, but in the end it was too little, too late and the tourists took a 1–0 lead in the series.