Cook Makes New Zealand Suffer for Early Let-off

With a lead of 148 overnight, thanks to the efforts of Jimmy Anderson on the previous day, England needed consolidation, knowing that if the pitch continued to help the seamers as it had throughout both first innings, then a further 200 runs would place them in a position that, weather permitting would allow them to level the series.

One question that needed answering however was how the pitch would play on a beautiful cloudless, windless, late-summer day. So much of the variation in the reaction of cricket pitches over the course of a Test match comes not from the surface itself but the overhead conditions. With cloud comes movement, generally swing, and sometimes only fractional and late so that it can be confused with seam movement.

A further complication comes on surfaces that start damp or, as in this case, where there is a matting of grass. Constant hammering of the ball into it can create pitting, a sort of dimpling as on a golf ball, and if these scalloped marks harden up as the game progresses, they can result in erratic bounce, the variations best exploited by the taller fast bowlers.

Michael Vaughan and Alastair Cook had survived a testing five overs on the second evening without mishap and having added 79 in the first innings would have been confident of a significant opening partnership once more, when Vettori decided to open with an exploratory over from Jacob Oram, their tallest bowler who created such problems first time around. One over was sufficient for him to revert to the usual combination of Kyle Mills and Chris Martin, Oram's over allowing a change of ends for the pair. Vaughan's response was to drive Martin through mid-on for the day's first boundary.

In the following over from Mills, however, the sixth of the day, the twin impostors of triumph and disaster reared their heads. Cook, on five, pushed away from his body at a ball that left him and edged fast to the left of Brendon McCullum who dived but could get only fingertips to the chance. In mitigation, McCullum prefers to go for such catches and consequently Stephen Fleming stands wider than normal at first slip: had McCullum not gone, it is doubtful Fleming would have taken the chance.

Then, from the last ball of the over, Mills gained some reward when a delivery squared up Vaughan and left him sufficiently to find the edge. This time McCullum made no mistake.

At 16 for one, there was much to be heaped on the shoulders of Andrew Strauss, whose place in the side is in jeopardy after three failures since his return to the side. He was given the easiest of starts, however, when he was able to leg glance his first ball from Martin to the fine-leg boundary to open his account.

Having escaped, Cook began to settle down, and off-drove Martin to the boundary before angling him safely past the slips for four more runs. Then in Martin's next over, he swung at a bouncer, succeeding only in getting a top edge which flew over the keeper's head for his first six in international cricket.

Now Vettori made a double change, bringing on Oram and Mark Gillespie, with the latter promptly driven through mid-off by Cook. Strauss, meanwhile, had been easing himself unobtrusively into his innings, playing watchfully, selecting strokes carefully. This was an accumulative rather than spectacular start.

But after Cook had driven Gillespie through the covers for his fifth boundary to move to 46, Strauss greeted Vettori's introduction of himself by turning back the clock, rocking on to his back foot and carving his first delivery, just fractionally short and wide, through the offside. It was like offering a starving man a sumptuous meal.

Cook went on to register his half century with the last ball of the session, an innings that had lasted two hours and 20 minutes, with 141 deliveries, five fours and that six. England went into lunch on 106 for one, a lead of 250 runs.