Fighting spirit delights Colly

Paul Collingwood celebrates bowling Peter Fulton in Friday's win at Auckland © Getty Images

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Paul Collingwood believes the battling display to keep the one-day international series alive against New Zealand could be crucial to the development of England's young side.

Having suffered comprehensive defeats in the opening two games of the five-match series, England's highly-rated line-up faced losing the series with two matches to go against a New Zealand side who had been rated as their worst for 40 years after they lost the Twenty20 Internationals.

But England responded to the challenge and delivered a battling performance to claim a six-wicket victory which captain Collingwood believes will be crucial for their learning curve in the future.

"We've always said we've been striving for consistency with the one-day side," he explained.

"You also have to give New Zealand a bit of credit because they aren't a bad side and they're not third in the world for no reason and they hammered us over the last two games.

"We realise we need to keep improving and as long as we do we're going in the right direction, but it's important to get wins like that when we've lost so heavily in the last two games."

One of the key lessons learned from Hamilton on Tuesday, when England collapsed from 85 for two to be dismissed for 158 after a two-hour rain-break, was to keep their concentration at all times and not relax even during a break in play.

Collingwood is run out in the second ODI © Getty Images

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It was a lesson they heeded on Friday at Eden Park when they were again forced off the field, this time only for 30 minutes, at 28 for one, but maintained their focus and reached a revised target of 229 with three overs remaining.

"It was only a brief one and you are going to learn from those kind of experiences," said Collingwood, who claimed the man-of-the-match award after seeing England over the line with 70 from 50 balls.

"It was another thing we talked about all week that if you do have a break you've got to be switched on still. We were very focused on the job in hand - there were a lot of things that the players wanted to do and go out prove themselves."

Once again England's performance was marred by a run-out - their seventh in three matches during the series - but Collingwood does not believe focusing on it in training will help them improve their running between the wickets.

He stressed: "It's disappointing to get another run-out, but there's nothing you can do in practice to replicate that kind of pressure in the middle.

"All I can say is that the New Zealanders don't miss the stumps very often and they do put you under a lot of pressure in that sense.

"Another run out is disappointing, but it can be one of those things that if you dwell on it too much it can become too much of an issue as well."