Southee and Mills Shine For Black Caps
Mills - Engineered the victory
England's hopes of continuing their resurgence as a one-day side were halted by a determined fightback from New Zealand on Saturday to level the NatWest Series.
Comfortable winners in the opening game of the five-match series at Chester-le-Street, England were given a reprieve at Edgbaston earlier this week when the weather closed in with the tourists favourite to secure victory.
But needing victory to take a stranglehold on the series, England slumped to a 22-run defeat in Bristol after they were dismissed for 160 chasing New Zealand's lowly total of 182.
It ended a miserable run of results for the tourists since they surrendered a 179-run first innings lead in the second Test at Old Trafford, which gifted the Test series to England and gave them the momentum in the early part of the one-day schedule.
That momentum was firmly halted today, however, with 19-year-old seamer Tim Southee destroying England's top order with a burst of three wickets in eight balls before returning to claim the crucial wicket of captain Paul Collingwood to finish with four for 38 in only his third one-day international.
England appeared to have everything in their favour at the start of the day with Collingwood winning the toss and deciding to take advantage of the seamer-friendly conditions.
It was a decision which reaped early rewards with aggressive opener Brendon McCullum perishing in the third over when he was caught at mid-off by Kevin Pietersen at full stretch after he had hit six, four, six off successive balls from James Anderson.
Having removed the most dangerous batsman in New Zealand's line-up, England then concentrated on frustrating the rest of the top order with Stuart Broad giving further evidence of his development as an international bowler.
Likened to Australian legend Glenn McGrath by Pietersen following England's victory in Durham, Broad delivered the most economical figures of his 29-match one-day international career.
Bowling unchanged for 10 overs, Broad claimed two for 14 and was backed up impressively by Chris Tremlett, who claimed one for nine in his first six overs in his first one-day international for a year.
Their efforts frustrated New Zealand into losing their wickets with opener Jamie How playing on attempting a pull shot in a desperate attempt to break the stranglehold while Daniel Flynn fell in a similarly manner.
It left New Zealand facing humiliation at 49 for five until Grant Elliott, who was playing club cricket for Weybridge just a week earlier before being called up as cover for injured all-rounder Jacob Oram, demonstrated his composure and resolve.
Elliott showed great patience in top-scoring with 56 off 102 balls and hit only three boundaries but became the mainstay of the innings and helped guide New Zealand to a big enough total to secure victory.
Initially aided by Gareth Hopkins in a 26-run stand before he also fell to a catch in the deep, his innings enabled New Zealand to accelerate in the final overs.
Joined by man-of-the-match Kyle Mills, who played the only really aggressive innings of the match by hammering 47 off only 40 balls, they added 50 off the last five overs and crucially, 32 off the last two overs.
Even with a wicket showing extra bounce and enough cloud cover to encourage the seamers, England's victory looked to be a formality chasing such a lowly total but within five overs of their reply they were given a clear warning.
Opener Luke Wright, whose 52 at Edgbaston had been the highlight of their previous match, fell to the fourth ball of the day edging Mills to second slip and Pietersen clipped the same bowler straight to mid-wicket.
Ian Bell contributed to England's downfall and was deceived by Elliott's slower ball and chipped to cover but it was the decision to change Southee to the Pavilion End which proved crucial.
Replacing Mills with England on 48 for two after 15 overs, Southee destroyed the top order by tempting Ravi Bopara into cutting to backward point in his second over just as the Essex all-rounder threatened to cut loose and build on his 27 off 42 balls.
Owais Shah and Tim Ambrose fell in his next over, both caught close to the wicket, as England lost four wickets for two runs in 19 balls and slid to 64 for six.
Needing a major partnership, they were provided with one by Collingwood and Graeme Swann.
Building slowly, the pair added a determined 65 in 17 overs to leave England needing only 54 from the final 14 overs when Swann clipped Scott Styris straight to short mid-wicket for a battling 29.
Collingwood guided them even closer to what would have been a stunning victory but just 31 from their target Southee returned and won a crucial lbw verdict against the England captain.
With Stuart Broad falling only three overs later to Vettori, caught behind down the leg-side, their fate was sealed and capped a memorable double for New Zealand on the same day the All Blacks humiliated the England rugby union team in Christchurch.