CRICKET:NEW ZEALAND were struggling to stay afloat yesterday evening as Alastair Cook, with considerable freedom as his opening partnership with Andrew Strauss progressed, gave England the solidity of a good start in their drive first to overhaul and then to obliterate the visitors' first-innings total of 277.

The pair allowed none of the New Zealand seamers to settle, with Cook quick on to anything loose, including taking 11 from three Tim Southee deliveries. A late finish was scheduled but bad light was always likely to interfere beforehand. It duly did with 25 overs yet to be bowled, by which time the pair had added 68. Cook made 43 and Strauss 24.

These were testing circumstances for Strauss and Cook. England bowled with considerably more consistency as the New Zealand innings progressed, so there would have been some quiet satisfaction in the visitors' dressing room that they had managed to transform their early rocky position into what could be a competitive score providing the conditions do not change.

England's understandably cautious start (the last time the teams met, in Napier in March, England found themselves four for three) was indicative there was still plenty there to encourage the type of seam bowling possessed by New Zealand. From the Pavilion End Chris Martin found pace and some seam movement to England's left-handed opening pair, while Kyle Mills managed sufficient movement to lend hope they could make similar inroads this time.

Strauss and Cook have been reunited as an opening pair because of Michael Vaughan's insistence that he bats at three. Strauss's Test match bacon may have been saved only by his last-ditch 177 in Napier but neither did Cook enjoy a particularly productive series in New Zealand.

For the most part the cricket reflected the weather, which was unremittingly dreary, as New Zealand spent the morning and part of the afternoon eking out their innings that had been resurrected from the brink of disaster so boldly by Brendon McCullum on the first day, and then England at first battled hard to avoid the pitfalls that come with a new ball, sappy pitch, leaden skies and an urgent attack.

The players were on and off the field with unsettling regularity as the light came and went in intensity.

A paltry 52 runs came from only 30 overs in the two hours' play before lunch, as the England bowlers gained the sort of stranglehold they might have anticipated earlier in the innings, and Daniel Vettori sought to nurse the lower order. It took some clinical new-ball bowling from Ryan Sidebottom to finish things off.

He had sent down a controlled spell of almost seven overs first thing, for three runs, and claimed the wicket of Jacob Oram, a classical piece of bowling that involved a bit of tenderising with some short stuff and then the sucker ball pitched up and pouched by Andrew Strauss at first slip.

With the new ball taken the moment it was available and with lunch only 10 minutes away, he was deadly, ripping out Mills with the second delivery, Southee with his ninth, and finally Vettori, last man out for 48, who shouldered arms and was bowled by the 20th.

In a flash, figures of one for 53 had been transformed to four for 55, from 28 overs and two balls.