Close New Zealand (147 and 28 for 0) need 522 more runs to beat England (228 and 468 for 6 dec; Thorpe 200*, Flintoff 137)
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It was a day when seasoned England fans had to pinch themselves in disbelief. Anaesthetised over the years by one batting collapse after another, they must have felt as if they had swallowed a month's-worth of prozac as they watched Graham Thorpe and Andrew Flintoff add 281 for the sixth wicket in 312 balls, and decimate a second-string New Zealand attack on a wicket which had pancaked out after yesterday's feast of swing and seam. In 81.1 overs, England scored an almost obscene 405 runs, and with two days still to go only the weather can deny them now.

The string of landmarks and milestones was almost too much to take in. It was England's highest partnership for any Test wicket in New Zealand, and their highest for the sixth wicket against any country. Andrew Flintoff hit his maiden half-century, then his maiden century, and Graham Thorpe hit his maiden double-century in 231 balls, which was the third-fastest in Tests. At one point the all-time Test sixth-wicket stand - 346 between Don Bradman and Jack Fingleton against England at Melbourne in 1936-37 - was in danger, but the idea of Freddie usurping The Don went beyond the bounds of decency so Flintoff obligingly picked out deep midwicket with immortality beckoning.

The stand was all more the eye-popping for what had preceded it. Flintoff, who had scored just eight runs in his previous five Test innings, joined Thorpe with the score 106 for 5, at which stage 25 wickets had fallen in the game for 481 runs. The lead was just 187, there was still some life in the wicket, and New Zealand began to believe they had a chance.

But Thorpe had already been badly missed at second slip by Nathan Astle off Chris Drum when he had only 4, and he quickly made Astle wish one of the construction workers in the mighty West Stand would come down and dig a giant hole. That drop was to cost New Zealand 196 runs - not quite the 297 runs granted to Graham Gooch at Lord's in 1990 when he was dropped by Kiran More on 36 during his 333, but pretty sickening nonetheless.

Thorpe immediately regained the initiative by pulling and cutting Drum for four, and Flintoff counterattacked with a succession of booming drives and cuts: 68 runs came in seven overs – 28 of them in two from Ian Butler – to knock the stuffing out of New Zealand. The hundred stand came up in just 114 deliveries, by which time both men had reached fifty, and at lunch the lead was 293. The Black Caps, deprived of the services of the injured Chris Cairns, were virtually waving the white flag already.

After treating the bowling like a load of liquorice allsorts before lunch, Thorpe and Flintoff came out after the interval determined to take candy from the baby. At one stage they plundered 48 runs in five overs of pure carnage, as Thorpe drove through the off side and nurdled through leg, and Flintoff cracked it straight, through extra-cover, and then launched Butler over cow corner for six as if he had more pressing things on his mind.

Thorpe became the third man this week – after Ricky Ponting and Nasser Hussain – to reach his 10th Test hundred, when he swept Daniel Vettori fine for two, and Flintoff followed him to three figures five overs later with a top-edged four over the keeper's head. In an innings of clean hitting, it had been almost his first false stroke all day. Thorpe's century, his third in four Tests in New Zealand, had required just 121 balls, Flintoff's 114, and at tea England were 377 for 5, a lead of 458. In a session of 28 overs, England had added 165 runs, taking their total in the day to 314. The stats were just too juicy to ignore.

Flintoff flicked Vettori effortlessly over midwicket for six, but his muscular innings eventually came to an end when he miscued Astle to deep midwicket, where the substitute Marcel McKenzie clung on by his shoelaces. Flintoff had made 137 – an improvement of 95 on his previous Test-best – in just 163 balls, and had toyed with the bowlers like a polar bear flipping a sea-lion. The bowling had been mediocre, but he had finally come of age as a Test batsman.

All that was left was for Thorpe to reach his double-century. New Zealand took the second new ball, but Thorpe just became more inventive, cutting Drum over point for six, then moving across his stumps Viv Richards-style to flick him for six more over long leg. He finally got there with a pushed single, punched the air in delight and walked off as England declared, leaving New Zealand a nominal target of 550. They made 28 of them without loss by the time shadows from the West Stand brought an early halt.

It was all a far cry from the first hour of play when England lost Hussain for 11, caught behind off Drum (81 for 3) and then Mark Butcher, who turned Butler to leg but had gone so far back in his crease in the process that he dislodged the bails with his back foot: Butcher hit wicket b Butler 34 (85 for 4). And the nerves were jangling when Mark Ramprakash chopped Drum onto his stumps as he tried to cut and was bowled for 11 (106 for 5).

That was as good as it got for New Zealand. For England, life was about to get a whole lot better.

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

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