At 4.15pm yesterday, this game was dead. The rain had stopped, but New Zealand were 174 for 6 in their first innings, and there were just six and a half sessions to go. But on a day of 418 runs, the Test emerged from its watery grave, and New Zealand have two men to thank. Daryl Tuffey bowled with the controlled aggression that his side has lacked all series, and was a millimetre away from the best figures by a New Zealander against England. And Nathan Astle did a mini-Christchurch, clubbing 65 in 51 balls under the floodlights to help set England a target of over 300 on the final day.

Until now New Zealand had won only two sessions in the entire series: the first of the match at Christchurch, when England lunched at 89 for 4; and yesterday evening, when they reduced England to 12 for 3. But today they won three sessions in a row, taking five wickets before lunch, batting steadily until tea, then unleashing their big hitters after it.

Stephen Fleming tells anyone who will listen that New Zealand play their best cricket when they're desperate. He was proved right when they won the deciding one-dayer at Dunedin; and he's on his way to being proved right here. If they win tomorrow, it will be the greatest steal since the Great Train Robbery, because England have made almost all the running in the series so far.

But they played today as if their shoelaces had been tied together. Michael Vaughan again promised much before groping at a straight one. Mark Ramprakash played a stroke that, for unbridled recklessness, rivalled his head-in-the-air charge off the bowling of Shane Warne at Trent Bridge last August. And Andy Caddick swished wildly when all that England needed was some solid crease-occupation.

They weren't helped by Doug Cowie, who somehow concluded that Andrew Flintoff had edged a ball he missed by six inches, despite the fact that the bowler didn't even appeal. The decision reflected even less well on Adam Parore, who had gone up for it in the first place. This is Parore's final Test, and his appeal may have had more to do with the fact that he wanted to finish with 200 dismissals. Flintoff was his 199th, so it felt like poetic justice when he dropped James Foster three balls later. The 200 never came, and when Parore walked off after being dismissed in the second innings, he was greeted with chants of "cheat" from the Barmy Army, which wasn't the most dignified of retirements.

England will have two options when they come out to bat tomorrow. In theory it will be another day of 105 overs, but if England are fighting for the draw, they can always take the light after 90. They should, however, aim higher than that, and for two reasons. The first is that the wicket has flattened out, as all drop-ins in New Zealand seem to, and the sun should be shining tomorrow. And since the wicket has only been subjected to 184.1 overs - the equivalent of two days - it will be at its best for batting tomorrow.

The second reason is that England are hopeless when they try to bat out for a draw, which is what they failed to do against Pakistan at Old Trafford in June, despite losing only two wickets by tea on the final day. If they go into their shells, New Zealand will surely winkle them out. So they must take the initiative, as they did five years ago in an almost indentical situation. England led 1-0 going into the final Test at Christchurch and were set more than 300 to win. They got there for the loss of six wickets. If Nasser Hussain can squeeze one last effort out of his team, it isn't beyond them to do it again.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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