The past week has been an impressive display from the BLACKCAPS on tour. After losing the opening match of the One Day International Series, the team has regrouped and responded. To be 2-1 up – against a very exciting and talented side – heading into the fourth ODI at Nottingham is very pleasing and showed fine character.

The three wicket win at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton was special for a number of reasons. Firstly the partnership of 206 between Kane Williamson (118 from 113) and Ross Taylor (110 from 123) was just world-class. Brendon McCullum often says that he wouldn’t trade his No.3 and No.4 for any other batsmen in the world and I totally agree. They provide the spine of our batting effort and there are few batsmen in the world who can control overs 10-40 like they can.

There have been a number of accolades from highly respected cricket commentators for them since their match winning performance and it is all fully deserved. Their 206 run partnership was the highest by New Zealand for the third wicket against any country in ODIs, surpassing Adam Parore and Ken Rutherford's 180 against India at Vadodara in 1994 and it broke a number of other records. It was a batting performance out of the top drawer as Kane brought up his seventh ODI ton at the age of 24 and Ross his 14th and second in successive weeks. Only two other cricketers – Martin Guptill and Mark Greatbatch – have managed back to back tons for New Zealand in ODI cricket.

It has also been an exciting time for the youngsters in the team as they find their feet at international level. Ben Wheeler made his debut in Southampton and we were rapt with his work, claiming three important wickets with the ball and being there at the end with the bat when we won the match.

Mitchell Santner, who made his debut in the opening match of the series, has come on with his bowling, batting and fielding and looks an exciting talent. He bowled at a crucial stage of the game the other day with Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes looking to unleash and not only did he contain them, he picked up the key wicket of Joe Root. Mitch also continued to show glimpses with the bat to help us get home. There is still more to see here and we are expecting an innings of substance before the series is out.

A key period of the match at Ageas Bowl was in the final stages of the English innings when we managed to claim five wickets for only 14 runs to bowl them out. That was a huge fightback from our bowling attack and the likes of Tim Southee, Matt Henry and Wheeler should be commended. We have bowled well in spells during this series but the exciting thing is that there is room for improvement in our execution. The other day showed how effective we can be when we build periods of concerted pressure. Two days before that the BLACKCAPS produced a special performance at The Oval in London with Ross and Kane again showing their worth in a flawless team batting performance and a never-say-die bowling effort that found a way to get us home by 13 runs.

Obviously we’d like nothing more than to claim the series win on Wednesday but we know that we will come up against an English side, who has played without fear throughout the series, which can be a dangerous beast. We will do what we need to do in the next two days to be fresh mentally and physically and ready to wrap up the series.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t all been good news lately. The past week we have had both Corey Anderson and Trent Boult return home for further assessment on back injuries. Both of them are very important players for New Zealand and with a big home summer ahead, it's important to take a conservative approach and allow them time to recover fully.

And back home, the team was sad to hear of the passing of former NZC Test player Mike Shrimpton. I knew Shrimpo as an excellent coach and a quality person, thoroughly enjoyed a deep discussion about the game and respected his views immensely. We all wish his family well in their time of loss.

We are coming towards the end of the tour and it has been a great cricketing experience for all of the guys, both the Test team and ODI team, and we’d clearly like nothing more than to finish our time here on a winning note, we appreciate it will not be easy though.....Thanks again to all of the fans of the BLACKCAPS and the incredible support you offer us every time we play.