Close Otago 150 for 6 (Caddick 4-42) trail England 153 (Pryor 5-45) by 3 runs Andy Caddick always said he needed to find some rhythm, and today, in the bracing mountain air of Queenstown, he started to beat his drum. More and more in the groove with every over, Caddick picked up four wickets and had the Otago batsmen ducking and diving as The Remarkables cast their craggy shadow across the pitch. With more bad weather forecast for tomorrow, this game should peter out into a draw, but at least England know that their senior fast bowler is back in business.

Caddick's efforts made up for some wayward stuff at the start of the Otago reply, particularly from James Ormond, who was drawn to leg stump like a rather large moth to a flame. On a wicket that still had plenty in it for the seamers, Ormond allowed Otago to race to 50 in the 11th over for the loss of Rob Lawson, who made 18 before Caddick had him caught by Mark Butcher at second slip (35 for 1).

But Brendon McCullum, who had mustered just 21 runs in three innings during the one-day series, was going for his shots. He pulled Ormond disdainfully for four, flicked Caddick to fine leg, then flashed Andy Flintoff's first ball over the slips. The mayhem ended in the second over after tea when Caddick found some extra bounce outside off and McCullum, on 34, nicked it through to Warren Hegg, who looked far tidier today than James Foster has done all winter (69 for 2).

The captain Craig Cumming, who leans forward like the Tower of Pisa at the crease, tucked into Ormond and helped add a chirpy 50 for the third wicket before he was caught behind off Craig White for 31 (119 for 3). Caddick, well oiled after a first spell of 12 overs, then had Chris Gaffaney, who also made 31, taken at third slip by Graham Thorpe (136 for 4). And five balls later Butcher found the outside edge of Simon Beare's bat and Flintoff did the rest at first slip (136 for 5).

There was still time for Caddick to bowl Duncan Drew for 2 as he shouldered arms in his maiden first-class innings (143 for 6), and suddenly England had a sniff of first-innings parity. Marcus Trescothick chose not to give Richard Dawson a bowl, and three catches – none of them easy – were dropped, but as the day drew to a close, England fielded as if they realised the serious cricket would be starting soon.

Earlier they had been bowled out for 153, which was marginally less embarrassing than their overnight score of 82 for 6, but still pretty dismal against a side who are runaway contenders for the wooden spoon in New Zealand's State Championship. Play resumed under cloudy skies at 1pm after the outfield had spent all morning drying out, and England soon lost White, who edged Kerry Wamsley to Nathan Morland at first slip and was out for 9 (89 for 7). White has now made 55 in seven innings on this tour, which almost mirrored England's collapse of 7 for 57.

In the Wellington one-dayer 89 for 7 had become 89 all out, but Hegg found an organised ally in Dawson, and for a while the roses of Lancashire and Yorkshire threatened to take root. Hegg unleashed his favourite upper-cut for four off David Sewell, moved past the previous top score of the innings – Butcher's 20 – with a glide through the slips for four more, then flashed Craig Pryor just out of point's reach. Dawson, whose batting is as level-headed as his offspin, drove Sewell square for another boundary, and at 131 for 7 the innings was in severe danger of clawing back some respectability.

But two balls from Pryor put paid to England's impudence. He ended Hegg's nuggety innings of 32 when a big drive outside off landed safely in Beare's midriff at third slip. Then Ormond went exactly the same way next ball to give Pryor his fifth wicket. Caddick nibbled nervously at the hat-trick delivery, but survived, and hung around long enough to take the score past 150 before becoming the seventh England batsman to offer a catch to the keeper-slips cordon. His partnership of 22 with Dawson (24*) was the third-highest stand of a rust-ridden innings.

Tomorrow morning Caddick needs to finish things off quickly, because with just three days' cricket left after this game, England's batsmen need all the practice they can get.

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

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