Black Caps coach Mike Hesson has sought to take the pressure off his struggling death bowlers by saying all three of his Twenty20 tri-series quicks have toiled throughout the tournament.
Deploying Colin de Grandhomme, Trent Boult and Tim Southee in the latter stages of England's innings on Sunday, the Kiwis shipped 61 runs in four overs.
Those expensive overs ultimately helped the English to a total of 7-194 in Hamilton, to which New Zealand could respond with only 4-192.
They nevertheless qualified for the tri-series final on net run rate.
It was a similar scenario in the Caps' loss to Australia last Friday, with Boult conceding a mammoth 25 runs in the 17th over and putting the Aussies in a position to successfully chase down 243 with seven balls remaining.
Yet Hesson wasn't too concerned.
He admitted to reporters on Monday that England had closed out their bowling better than his team, with Chris Jordan and Tom Curran outstanding.
Curran, facing de Grandhomme and Mark Chapman, limited the Black Caps to just nine runs in their final over to hand the English a two-run win.
But Hesson didn't believe it was a sign of a larger deficiency.
"All three sides are against pretty potent batting line-ups and at times have been exposed - we're no different," Hesson said.
"We got ourselves in a position where we could've won (against England) - at the end, they bowled good death and we couldn't adapt as well as we should have.
"It's not like we've been poor, just some of those key times we haven't nailed."
Nevertheless, New Zealand will go into Wednesday's tri-series final against Australia at Eden Park hoping to spring a surprise.
The unbeaten Australians are red-hot favourites to take out the title but Hesson said smart play could get his Kiwis over the line.
He predicted another high-scoring affair.
"We've had three pretty close T20 games, Australia batting exceptionally well at Eden Park and chasing down a score that was pretty formidable," Hesson said.
"But you've got to be in the final and give yourself a chance."
