Nasser Hussain's 106, his tenth Test century, was a very well-balanced effort. He scored 53 runs on the leg side – and 53 on the off. It restored Hussain's reputation as England's best batsman on difficult wickets, which was established by his 128 against India at Edgbaston in 1996, and underlined by his 94 at seam-friendly Headingley against South Africa in 1998. As you would expect on a pitch where the ball was darting around off the seam, New Zealand's bowlers drew Hussain forward for the majority of his strokes – he played 131 of his 244 balls off the front foot, and 106 off the back. He advanced down the track twice, and displayed minimal footwork to five balls. Hussain was beaten 22 times – but did middle the ball with 115 of his strokes, and let it go through to the keeper 53 times.

But New Zealand may have missed a trick by not bowling Chris Cairns more at Hussain. Even though Hussain dropped to No. 4, Cairns got at him as early as the first over, after his double strike to remove Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcher. But Cairns sent down only 20 balls at Hussain in total, from which he conceded 13 runs. By contrast, Hussain faced 57 deliveries from the inexperienced Ian Butler, NZ's debutant fast bowler, and collected 41 runs from them, including eight of his 14 fours. He also faced 61 balls from Nathan Astle, who leaked only 14 runs.

The other bowlers Hussain faced were Chris Drum (65 balls, 20 runs), Daniel Vettori (39 balls, 17 runs) and Craig McMillan (two balls, one run).

England's total of 228 was exactly the same as they managed in the first innings on their last visit to Christchurch, in 1996-97 – and they went on to win that match, with their captain (Mike Atherton) making a century.

Steven Lynch is database director of Wisden.com.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd