Former New Zealand cricket coach Warren Lees was amazed at England's failure to make the most of their opportunities on a limited first day of their three-day match against Otago at Queenstown today.

Lees coached the New Zealand team during their highly-successful 1992 World Cup campaign and the following drawn Test series with Australia in New Zealand before he was dropped as coach.

Now involved in the game as a comments man on radio he was surprised at the basic approach employed by the English who finished the rain-shortened day on 82/6.

"What they wanted from today was to have a net. They needed everyone to bat for 50 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes and at the end of the day for everyone to feel they had enjoyed a good net.

"But their top three (Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash) failed.

"The next batsmen up needed to say, 'Hold on, we'll now bat for two hours,' but they didn't. They just kept batting the same way.

"When the Otago bowlers bowled a wayward ball they never let it go, they kept playing at it," he said.

Lees added that the side's captain and coach would be pretty disappointed at the end of the day.

"They are playing in a holiday venue, and they played holiday cricket.

"What they should do when they come tomorrow is decide to play some good cricket, and I am sure we will see some different batting," he said.

Lees said that of the batsmen Butcher looked out of touch, and that was to be expected having come straight from the English winter, but the players who had been here for the one-day series had been guilty of still playing one-day cricket.

© CricInfo