Mark Butcher was convinced that a seaming wicket was the cause of England's top-order collapse against Otago today, and not rusty batting. "There was more grass on that than I've seen anywhere for a long time, even England in April," he said. "The groundsman was maybe a bit worried that the pitch wouldn't last for three days, but I think it will last for 17." England reached 32 for 0 but then lost 6 for 37 as the Otago seamers swung the ball all over the place. "If you have a pitch with a lot of grass on it, the ball swings for longer," explained Butcher. "The ball doesn't get older – it stays brand new all the time. One perpetuates the other, so it was pretty tough."

Despite the fact that only three of the top six – Marcus Trescothick, Graham Thorpe and Andrew Flintoff – had been playing since Christmas, Butcher didn't feel the batting was out of touch. "I was feeling pretty happy with my game and I was striking the ball nicely. You can't really put it down to rustiness – it's just extreme conditions. I didn't face a single ball that swung the whole six weeks I was in India. So that was as big a contrast as you can get.

"It would have been nice to have had better batting conditions," he added. "You've got bad weather around as well which doesn't help. And with only two games before the first Test match, you want to be out there as much as possible. But a few of the guys are looking forward to having a bowl. Maybe even me … "

Butcher brushed off the suggestion that the Queenstown wicket would be similar to the ones England would face during the three-Test series. "The guys have said that the wickets for the one-dayers had bounce in them and were pretty good." On today's evidence, England are hoping he's right.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com. You can read his reports here throughout the tour.

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