Luke Wright is confident England have the momentum necessary to complete a remarkable comeback by winning Saturday's final one-day international against New Zealand and levelling the series.

Heavily beaten in the opening two games of the five-match series, England looked set for a damage limitation exercise during the early stages of the tour.

But victory in Auckland was followed by a stunning comeback to tie the match in Napier - when Sussex all-rounder Wright was chosen to bowl the final over with only seven runs required and prevented New Zealand from securing the series.

It has left the tourists needing victory in Saturday's final match at the Jade Stadium to level the series and continue a remarkable revival in their fortunes under Paul Collingwood's captaincy, which has included series wins over India and Sri Lanka.

"I think we've come away thinking it was a bit of a win," admitted Wright. "From six or seven overs out the series was gone so to get a tie and be able to go to the next game was great.

"Hopefully we can take a bit of momentum now, win the last game and get a draw in the series which will be quite a good result after the first two games."

Wright's brief display with the ball, which included restricting Daniel Vettori to a single off the last ball when they needed two for victory, left New Zealand admitting it felt like a defeat.

"I think if we'd have been in their position and got a tie I think it would have been pretty devastating," said Wright.

"To go into the last game with the series alive is obviously the worst scenario for them, but we can take a lot of credit for the way we've fought back and shown a lot of character to get a tie so hopefully we can take that on and win in Christchurch."

Wright, chosen for the side primarily as a hard-hitting batsman, conceded that it was still a mystery to him why captain Collingwood chose him to bowl that final over but took it as a major compliment.

"I don't know why he chose me," he added. "I bowled at the death in the warm-up games and it went pretty well and I saw it as a compliment, really.

"At the time I didn't really think too much of it, but looking back on it now I suppose it's a bit of a pat on the back. It's nice to have repaid a bit of faith that he's shown in me.

"In a way the pressure was off me. Not many people were expecting me to keep it under the seven runs so I just thought it was a chance to gain rather than to fail."

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