A late surge midway through the final quarter has allowed the Silver Ferns to retain the Taini Jamison Trophy against England in Hamilton this evening 59-52.
In a tense series full of ups and downs - some of which came before England and their "development" team had arrived in New Zealand - the final Test in front of sold out GloBox Arena reflected just that with the sides trading leads before the Silver Ferns delivered the decisive blow late.
Coach Dame Noeline Taurua opted to start the same players who played all 60 minutes of their big win over the Roses earlier in the week and in the end, all seven went the distance again with 60-minute efforts.
That meant rookie shooter Amelia Walmsley got a chance to back up her impressive debut from Wednesday with another big game tonight and again the 19-year-old delivered.
Walmsley's height became a key feature of the contest as the Silver Ferns found her again and again with feeds England's defenders simply couldn't reach and her footwork inside the shooters' circle helped her to a 40-for-44 performance.
She was again backed up by the ever-stable presence of Ameliaranne Ekenasio who added 19 goals from 23 attempts as well as 18 feeds to her new teammate.
Despite the impressive shooting, England were pushing the Ferns to their limit with their own attack coming out strong in the decider and forcing the New Zealand defence to go up another level after taking a 14-12 lead to end the first quarter.
But that they did, allowing the Silver Ferns to not only claw back the small deficit they were in but surge ahead to a 27-24 lead at halftime.
England didn't take long to draw the scores level again though after halftime and the two sides traded goals tic-for-tac for the next 18 centre passes.
However, with less than four minutes left in the third quarter the Silver Ferns went on a four-goal run, sparked by an outstanding intercept from Kate Heffernan as she managed to intercept the ball and get a pass away with one arm as she was flying out of bounds.
England managed to claw the deficit back to two though to end the quarter, leaving the Ferns with a 41-39 lead heading into the final 15 minutes.
The two sides again traded goals to open the quarter but a wayward England pass was happily snatched up by Ekenasio and the Silver Ferns ran with it, scoring the next five goals to jump out to a 49-42 lead that the Roses simply couldn't claw back.
Ekenasio said after the match the Silver Ferns were honoured to have played the side and done so in front of sold out crowds.
"It was definitely a tough-fought competition out there," Ekenasio said.
"We're really proud to be playing back home."
The Silver Ferns now have two weeks to rest and prepare for Australia with the Constellation Cup kicking off on October 12.
Silver Ferns 59 [Amelia Walmsley 40/44, Ameliaranne Ekenasio 19/23]
England 52 [Sasha Glasgow 26/29, Berri Neil 26/32]
Q1: 12-14 Q2: 27-24 Q3: 41-39
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