Chasing 16 to win in the extra over, Jimmy Neesham and Martin Guptill took 14 from Jofra Archer's first five balls before Guptill was run out by Jos Buttler following a Jason Roy throw as he came back for the second run on the last ball.

It meant England won the game after scoring nine more boundaries than the Black Caps, thanks in part to the heroics of super over batsmen Ben Stokes and Buttler.

However, even the end of the regular match was marked by drama as Stokes hit 84 not out and both teams finished on 241.

With 15 required off four balls, Stokes launched Trent Boult over the mid-wicket boundary for six.

From the following delivery he again hit Boult into the deep, and as New Zealand attempted to run him out on the second run, the ball hit Stokes' bat and deflected to the boundary.

Stokes immediately apologised, but the umpires were left with no choice but to award four overthrows and six runs in total.

Adil Rashid and Mark Wood were then both run out at the bowlers' end on the final two balls of the innings, as Stokes kept the strike but fell one run short of victory.

"Not the way I wanted to do it, ball going off my bat like that, I apologised to Kane," Stokes said.

"I'm pretty lost for words.

"All the hard words that's gone in over these four years, this is where we aspired to be.

"To do it with such a game, I don't think there will be another like this in the history of cricket."

It came after New Zealand appeared to be in control of the game with England teetering at 4-86.

Lockie Ferguson took 3-50 and Jimmy Neesham 3-43, while Colin de Grandhomme went for just 1-25 from his 10 overs.

Nerves had appeared to be setting in for the hosts, with Joe Root getting out in uncharacteristic fashion for just seven off 30 balls.

But from there England recovered.

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Buttler and Stokes put on 110 for the fifth wicket, with Buttler looking the far more comfortable of the pair.

Together they got the margin down to 46 off 32 balls before Buttler sliced Ferguson to Tim Southee at deep extra cover on 59 off 60 balls.

Chris Woakes followed two overs later when he tried to hit Ferguson over the legside but skied it to wicketkeeper Tom Latham.

Liam Plunkett and Archer both went in the penultimate over to Neesham, but all the while Stokes was going.

New Zealand had a chance to remove him with 22 needed off nine, when he hit Neesham to Boult at the deep mid-on boundary.

Boult took the ball cleanly, but put his foot on the rope as he went to relay it back to Martin Guptill and Stokes survived.

However, it was only to be the start of the drama in one of the best one-day matches ever played.

Earlier, Woakes and Plunkett had been the best for England with the ball with three wickets each.

Henry Nicholls had played a lone hand with the bat for New Zealand with his 55, as the Black Caps struggled to build momentum.

The win is England's first major men's World Cup win on home soil since the 1966 football World Cup.

AAP