England were not the best side in the world and nor were they the worst and last night's victory over New Zealand had been about putting things right, according to England captain Nasser Hussain.

He said the 43-run victory that kept the National Bank Series alive was a result of the experience of the loss of the second match in Wellington when England were dismissed for 89.

Hussain had adopted a low-key attitude after the Wellington performance, initiating a team analysis session and asking the players why it had gone so badly.

"Because it was not an understandable performance.

"To some degree we put things right tonight," he said.

But he expected that New Zealand would be looking to do the same thing before the next game in Auckland on Saturday.

"New Zealand will up their standards," he said.

The decision on the same 11 being chosen for yesterday's game as suffered the record loss in Wellington had been a matter of the 11 people messing it up there putting it right in Napier.

"If you keep working at things some days it will go right," he said.

All winter the side had had very good starts with the bat and that had been the case again here and the run-a-ball innings by Graham Thorpe during the last 10 overs had also been significant.

Hussain was also happy to lose the toss and be asked to bat first. He knew from the last time the teams played here and Chris Harris had been able to swing the ball around that the same could happen this time, and so it proved for Paul Collingwood.

It had been difficult to restart the innings after the two rain breaks, especially when those breaks came in the 13th over just as the side was looking to use the last two of the first 15 overs to mount an assault before the field dropped back and in the last stages of the innings when the charge was on.

The rain had juiced the pitch up a little but on the second occasion especially New Zealand had to deal with a wet ball and more difficult fielding conditions.

© CricInfo