Even as victory for England over New Zealand became assured last night in Auckland, captain Nasser Hussain wasn't prepared to disregard the threat as New Zealand were required to score around 12 runs an over.

"New Zealand were always in the game.

"They keep coming at you, they keep hitting ball out the ground. Even [Daniel] Vettori can bat at No 10," he said.

Hussain described the side's victory as a good effort but there was still work to do before the series could be wrapped up in his side's favour.

"We regrouped after Wellington. We played some good cricket in India, and some good cricket in Christchurch and had a chat in Wellington and put things right for two games.

"As I've said many times, it doesn't mean we're World Cup favourites all of a sudden. We've done it for a couple of games. Now we've got a final in Dunedin. We've got to get back together, have a bit more team spirit, team bonding and play like we can.

"We played well for large parts of today and for New Zealand to be still in that game, you just look at their batting line-up," he said.

"It was not over till the death."

Batting and bowling had been good on the day but the fielding had too many extremes, he said.

The batsmen had done well with the ball doing a bit and the side had recovered well from the loss of Marcus Trescothick off the third ball.

The bowlers also had to do their bit and put the ball in the right spot.

"Rain is no good for anyone and the Duckworth/Lewis system is probably the fairest system we have played under so far, but rain doesn't help anyone," he said.

"If we do all our disciplines well we can beat New Zealand. Because we are a young side, we are still a little bit clumsy at times.

"When you have to be really good to beat sides you can't afford that. We have to get that clumsiness out of our cricket still," he said.

"But there is talent in that dressing room and if we can put it all together in the next year then we will progress. It's a long, long way away, we've just got to put it together for Dunedin," he said.

© CricInfo