England's Andrew Flintoff pumps his fist after hitting the winning run at the end of the tri-series one-day international cricket match between England and New Zealand at Bellerive Oval in Hobart yesterday. - Reuters

SYDNEY (Reuters):

Andrew Flintoff scored a brilliant half-century to steer England to a morale-boosting three-wicket victory over New Zealand in the third tri-series one-day international in Hobart yesterday.

Flintoff made an unbeaten 72 off 75 balls to help England reach their victory target of 206 with just one ball to spare and register their first win on their disastrous tour of Australia.

"We've won a game of cricket," England's relieved captain Michael Vaughan told a news conference. "It was an important day for us all. We had to win today for the whole momentum of the tour. Now we've got the season up and running, we must take the momentum from this game into a big game against the Aussies on Friday."

England looked to have the game well in control after James Anderson captured four wickets to restrict New Zealand to 205-9 until things started to go wrong and the Kiwis almost stole the game.

Vaughan strained a hamstring and England's batting wobbled before Flintoff came to the rescue, slamming seven boundaries to win the Man-of-the Match award.

"It's one thing I wanted to do for a while, especially in the one-day form is finish a game," Flintoff said. "To be there at the end and knock the runs off ... I'm pleased to have done that today."

NERVES

New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming said both teams had been nervous but Flintoff proved the deciding factor.

"Tentative batting probably led to substandard batting and it was England who were a bit more match-hardened than us," Fleming said. "One guy made a difference and it was just a slug-fest between two sides that were nervous."

Flintoff, who has been in great form since being relieved of the captaincy, had a lucky escape in the 47th over when he was caught by Taylor at mid-off from a full-toss from Mark Gillespie but the umpire ruled it was a no-ball because the delivery was above his waist.

Final three runs

England seemed to be back in control needing 12 off the final two overs, but that became four off the last over when New Zealand dismissed Jamie Dalrymple and kept Flintoff and Jon Lewis to two singles.

But Lewis managed a single off the first ball of Craig McMillan's last over to put Flintoff back on strike and he chalked up the final three runs required for victory.

England's next match is against Australia in Bisbane on Friday while New Zealand's next game is against the host nation in Sydney on Sunday.