Close England 12 for 3 (Tuffey 2-3) trail New Zealand 202 (Harris 71, Parore 45, Caddick 4-70) by 190 runs
scorecard

Just when it looked as if their hopes were being washed away by the weather, New Zealand gave themselves an outside chance of forcing a series-squaring victory when they reduced England to 12 for 3 on a hectic, sun-kissed, rain-splattered evening.

Daryl Tuffey took two wickets in the first over of England's reply and Chris Drum chipped in soon after as England batted like rabbits in headlights on a pitch that was still drying out after a series of showers had held up play yet again. First to go was Marcus Trescothick, who was caught on the crease by a ball that nipped back into him and would have gone on to demolish off stump. In the one-dayer here, Trescothick had fallen to Tuffey's third ball of the innings. Today he lasted just two before registering his fourth duck in 11 international innings.

Three balls later, Mark Butcher gloved a rising delivery straight to Mark Richardson at short leg and England were 0 for 2 after five deliveries – precisely the situation they had found themselves in at the Christchurch Test.

On that occasion, Nasser Hussain gutsed it out for a matchwinning century, but now he managed just 2 before nicking Drum to Stephen Fleming at first slip to make it 11 for 3. Fleming celebrated by turning round to the Barmy Army, who minutes earlier had been taunting him with chants of "You've got the worst catchers in the world". New Zealand scented blood, but bad light saved England's bacon – for the moment at least. Another half hour and they could have been five down.

It was an extraordinary end to a day that had been going nowhere as New Zealand, who resumed on 151 for 5 after rain had prevented any play until after lunch, ambled to 172 for 5 in between the showers. But Chris Harris received a shocker of an lbw decision from umpire Venkat, and after another interruption for rain they collapsed in pursuit of quick runs.

Harris, who was lucky to survive a bat-pad catch on Saturday when he had 28, was struck high on the pad by a ball from Andrew Flintoff that pitched a foot outside leg stump, but Venkat's crooked arm was raised almost before Flintoff had turned round to appeal. Harris was out for 71, having spent the previous 20 balls trying to improve on his previous Test best, and he walked off with an angry shake of the head (172 for 6).

Rain then forced the players off the field for two hours, and when they re-emerged New Zealand had no option but to take some risks. Daniel Vettori was trapped leg-before by Matthew Hoggard for 3 as he played round his front pad (191 for 7). And five balls later, Adam Parore, who had already hit Flintoff for six over cover, tried to flick him behind square on the leg side, but only succeeded in picking out Usman Afzaal, who was on as substitute. Afzaal ran round the boundary to cling on and celebrated as if England had won the Ashes. In fact, they had reduced New Zealand to 198 for 8. Parore had made 45.

Andre Adams, on debut, was dropped off successive Flintoff deliveries by Hussain at first slip – although the first was a no-ball – but it was third time lucky when he skied the very next delivery to Ashley Giles at mid-on and departed for 7 (200 for 9). And when Daryl Tuffey mistimed a pull off Hoggard straight to Butcher at deep backward square to fall for 0, New Zealand had lost their last five wickets for 30 in 8.5 overs.

With only two days and a bit to go, it hardly seemed to matter. But then Tuffey stirred things up. With better weather forecast for the next two days, England still have time to lose this match.

New Zealand 1 Mark Richardson, 2 Lou Vincent, 3 Stephen Fleming (capt), 4 Chris Harris, 5 Nathan Astle, 6 Craig McMillan, 7 Adam Parore (wk), 8 Andre Adams, 9 Daniel Vettori, 10 Daryl Tuffey, 11 Chris Drum.

England 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Michael Vaughan, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Nasser Hussain (capt), 5 Graham Thorpe, 6 Mark Ramprakash, 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 James Foster (wk), 9 Ashley Giles, 10 Andy Caddick, 11 Matthew Hoggard.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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