Vettori Pleased With Kiwi Revival

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has praised his side for recovering from their Test setbacks against England as they look to salvage a tangible reward from the tour by winning the NatWest one-day series.

The Kiwis lost 2-0 and then looked to be suffering a hangover as they were beaten in the Twenty20 match at Old Trafford and the opening one-dayer at Durham.

But they have lived up their ranking as number three one-day side in the world in the ICC rankings with their performances in the abandoned game at Edgbaston and the 22-run win at Bristol.

Vettori said: "I am proud of the way the boys have come back, really happy. We've said for a while that we are a good one-day side but the performance in Durham wasn't great at all.

"To bounce back pretty quickly from that has been excellent and, if we can win this series, then it will be an even split between the Test matches and the one-dayers - like it was in the matches with England back home in the winter.

"That is probably indicative of where we are at with our cricket. We know we've got two games to try to win but it would go a long way to redeeming the Test part of the tour.

"It would have been hard now with nothing to play for and it would have made the trip up to Scotland next week even harder as well.

"The fact the series is alive all the way to the end, whether it is to draw it or to win it, is great for the actual games coming up and for us that we can be involved in it to the bitter end."

Vettori is looking for his bowlers to again put the England top six under pressure and they will have the added boost of all-rounder Jacob Oram being fit after missing the opening three games with a hamstring problem.

He said: "I like to concentrate more on the way we bowled rather than how England performed - and we were certainly on top of our game for the majority of the time at Bristol.

"For Tim Southee (four for 38) to step up like that in only his third one-dayer and have a spell like that, and the way Kyle Mills led from the top, enabled us to put England in those pressure situations.

"We've got to look to produce the same again and having Oram back again is a massive boost. He is one of the best one-day players in the world.

"He will be fit to bowl as well as bat and that is going to add another dimension. When you get good players back, the team confidence just goes up even more."

Although Oram is fit to return, his replacement in the squad, Grant Elliott, will retain his place after impressive performances at Edgbaston and Bristol in the previous two games.

The likelihood is that opening batsman Brendon McCullum will don the wicketkeeping gloves at the expense of Gareth Hopkins to accommodate Oram.

Teams

England (from): PD Collingwood (Durham, capt), IR Bell (Warwickshire), AN Cook (Essex), LJ Wright (Sussex), KP Pietersen (Hampshire), RS Bopara (Essex), OA Shah (Middlesex), TR Ambrose (Warwickshire, wkt), GP Swann (Northamptonshire), SC Broad (Nottinghamshire), CT Tremlett (Hampshire), JM Anderson (Lancashire), RJ Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), AD Mascarenhas (Hampshire).

New Zealand (from): DL Vettori (capt), JM How, BB McCullum (wkt), RPL Taylor, SB Styris, DR Flynn, GD Elliott, G Hopkins, KD Mills, TG Southee, MR Gillespie, MJ Mason, JDP Oram, JS Patel.

Umpires: S Davis, M Benson.