Close England 280 and 184 for 1 (Trescothick 77*, Butcher 57*) lead New Zealand 218 all out (Richardson 60, Caddick 6-63, Giles 4-103) by 246 runs
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A fiery spell of seam bowling from Andy Caddick, some wily support work from Ashley Giles, and a busy display from the batsmen have given England an outside chance of forcing a series-clinching victory when play resumes tomorrow. Caddick took 5 for 31 in a spell of 15.3 overs either side of lunch to complete his second six-for in a row, while Giles, who at one point picked up 3 for 7 in 29 balls, found some serious turn from outside the right-hander's leg stump. England's top three then scored at nearly four an over on another balmy evening in Wellington to set up a fifth-day declaration.

New Zealand had only themselves to blame. After 57 painfully patient overs of their reply, they had reached 135 for 1, which was a decent platform for an afternoon assault. But Lou Vincent top-edged an ugly hoick off Giles to Graham Thorpe at short fine leg to depart from 57, and when Caddick returned for his second spell it all went wrong. Within the space of a session, a potential first-innings lead had turned into a deficit of 62, and New Zealand's hopes of winning the series had evaporated in the afternoon heat.

Caddick kept his cool, which isn't always the case in the first innings of a Test, and he was ably supported by his fielders. Stephen Fleming was confronted with the left-hander's nightmare of a point and two gullies, but when he tried to force the pace with a rasping cut shot, Thorpe, the finer of the gullies, was in the way. Fleming was out for 3 – to make it 72 runs in his last five intenational innings – and New Zealand were 138 for 3.

Next to go was Mark Richardson, who had been badly dropped by James Foster off Andrew Flintoff on 39, but got an inside edge onto his pad as he tried to work Caddick to leg and Giles dived forward in the gully (143 for 4). Richardson had made 60, which was only seven runs more than his Test average at the start of the innings.

Giles had been plugging away since the ninth over of the day, and in the 29th he knocked the stuffing out of New Zealand's middle order. Nathan Astle's walk to the wicket was greeted with expectant applause, presumably on the basis that lightning can strike twice. But when Giles got one to spit across him and glance the outside edge, Nasser Hussain stuck out a periscopic left hand and plucked the ball a centimetre off the grass (147 for 5). Astle was out for a mere 218 runs fewer than he had made eight days ago.

Four balls later Adam Parore was gone too, caught off pad and bat by Mark Ramprakash at short leg for a duck that took his tally in the series to one run in three innings (149 for 6). Five wickets had fallen for 14 runs in less than nine overs, and suddenly the game was alive again.

As at Christchurch Craig McMillan was left to thrash it out with the tail, but on the stroke of lunch he lost Daniel Vettori, who edged Caddick low to Thorpe at a widish third slip and departed for 11 (178 for 7). It took Caddick to 194 Test wickets, and up to eighth place in England's alltime list, one ahead of Jim Laker.

McMillan became Caddick's fifth victim after the interval when he tried to turn a ball to leg but missed and was caught plumb in front of middle stump (201 for 8). In a game of increasingly desperate appealing, this was the first lbw, and McMillan was on his way for 41. Chris Drum, on 2, skyed Giles to Marcus Trescothick at mid-on (207 for 9), and Ian Butler was caught behind off Caddick for 12. Nine wickets had fallen for 83, and an innings that had been constructed brick-by-brick had been dismantled as if it was Lego.

England had 49 overs to extend their lead, and they did it in style. Michael Vaughan hooked Butler for six, and Trescothick pulled him twice to the boundary in the same over. When the 50 came up in the 14th over, it became a matter of damage limitation for New Zealand. But the damage to England was limited to the wicket of Vaughan, who batted with customary elegance before sweeping Vettori to deep square leg where Drum took a tumbling catch. Vaughan was out for 34, but England had got to 79 and the lead was already 141.

After that it was the Mark and Marcus show. Trescothick reached his first international fifty of the tour with consecutive – not to say cathartic – extra-cover drives for four off Astle, and when he finally connected with an attempted slog-sweep off Vettori, the ball soared over midwicket for six.

Butcher, dropped behind by Parore off the suffering Vettori on 8, lit up the closing stages as the shadows drew in. He drove and cut Drum for two fours in one over, then flashed McMillan off the back foot through the covers. McMillan appeared to have him caught behind on 41, but umpire Dunne shook his head – he is a head-shaker par excellence – and Butcher moved to his half-century with a cover-drive for four in the next over from McMillan, who was still incandescent.

The day ended with the Barmy Army singing England's praises, but it had begun very differently. Just before 10am, the players lined up in front of the main stand to observe a minute's silence for Ben Hollioake, who died yesterday. For England to have played as positively as they did was an extraordinary effort.

Teams
New Zealand 1 Matthew Horne, 2 Mark Richardson, 3 Lou Vincent, 4 Stephen Fleming (capt), 5 Nathan Astle, 6 Craig McMillan, 7 Adam Parore (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Ian Butler, 10 Chris Drum, 11 Chris Martin.

England 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Michael Vaughan, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Nasser Hussain (capt), 5 Graham Thorpe, 6 Mark Ramprakash, 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Ashley Giles, 9 James Foster (wk), 10 Andrew Caddick, 11 Matthew Hoggard.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com. Join us at 9.30pm GMT for live coverage of a promising final day.

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