NZ spinners make England labour

Tight New Zealand bowling and a placid pitch strangled England’s first innings...

Tight New Zealand bowling and a placid pitch strangled England’s first innings as they crawled to 286 for six at stumps on the third day of the first Test here today. Although England had passed the follow-on mark, they were still 184 runs short of New Zealand’s first innings 470.

With New Zealand’s twin spinners Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel in full flight, England could only muster 199 runs for the loss of four wickets on the third day after resuming at 87 for two. It was a tough grind for runs and the batsmen were never allowed to dominate.

England captain Michael Vaughan, who started the day on 44, made slow progress to 63 before he prodded at a delivery from Patel and succeeded only in getting a thick edge, which was taken by Brendon McCullum behind stumps.

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Andrew Strauss struggled through to lunch, but three balls after the resumption he played and missed a flighted ball from Vettori and was bowled for 43. When the new ball was taken, Kyle Mills struck for New Zealand with a delivery that nipped back from a good length and bowled Ian Bell, putting the batsman out of his misery after he had accumulated just 25 from 88 balls.

Kevin Pietersen opened in aggressive fashion with a six off the third ball he faced from Patel. But if the meagre crowd of 2,500 thought Pietersen was going to inject some life into the game they were soon proved otherwise as he retreated into his shell. For nearly an hour while he was at the crease the run rate was down to just one an over.

New Zealand 1st innings: 470

England 1st innings

M Vaughan c McCullum b Patel 63, A Strauss b Vettori 43

K Pietersen c and b Vettori 42

I Bell b Mills 25, P Collingwood batting 41, T Ambrose batting 23; Extras (b-3, lb-1, nb-5) 9

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Total (for 6 wkts; 134 overs) 286; Fall of wickets: 1-84, 2-86, 3-130, 4-159, 5-203, 6-245

Bowling: Martin 24-10-53-2, Mills 21-6-61-1, Patel 35-10-90-1, Oram 16-8-18-0, Vettori 38-13-60-2