England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to field against New Zealand in the fifth and deciding one-day international at the Riverside Ground on Saturday.
However, England's bid to make the most of early overcast conditions was thwarted when rain delayed the scheduled 10:30am local time (0930 GMT) start at north-east county Durham's headquarters.
England made one change from the side that levelled the five-match series at 2-2 with a seven-wicket win at Nottingham's Trent Bridge on Wednesday after Jos Buttler was ruled out.
Lancashire wicket-keeper/batsman Buttler split the webbing between his left thumb and forefinger during practice on Friday and he was replaced by Jonny Bairstow, called up on Friday even though Kent gloveman Sam Billings was already in the squad.
Bairstow, 25, won the last of his eight ODI caps against Ireland in a rain-abandoned fixture in Dublin last month.
The son of the late former Yorkshire and England wicket-keeper David Bairstow, Jonny Bairstow has also made 14 Test and 18 Twenty20 international appearances.
Meanwhile, World Cup finalists New Zealand gave a debut to 25-year-old medium pacer Andrew Mathieson, called up as cover to their squad after back injuries to Trent Boult and Corey Anderson.
Mathieson replaced left-arm paceman Mitchell McClenaghan in the one change to the New Zealand side that played in Nottingham.
England and New Zealand need to score just 324 more runs between them to become the first teams to hit the combined mark of 3,000 runs in a five-match ODI campaign.
The most runs scored in a five-match series are the 2,963 shared by India and Pakistan in 2013/14.
But last year, an ODI saw England dismissed for just 99 by Sri Lanka during a 157-run defeat.
Saturday's match was third umpire Steve Davis's last in any official capacity before the veteran Australian official's retirement.
Teams
England: Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow (wkt), Sam Billings, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Mark Wood, Steven Finn
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum (capt), Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Mitchell Santner, Luke Ronchi (wkt), Ben Wheeler, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Andrew Mathieson
Umpires: Bruce Oxenford (AUS), Michael Gough (ENG)
TV umpire: Steve Davis (AUS)
Match referee: Javagal Srinath (IND)
Weather: Overcast and raining, with the prospect of some swing.
Pitch conditions: light coloured strip promises to provide a good batting surface. – AFP