England 280 (Hussain 66, Butler 4-60) and 293 for 4 dec (Trescothick 88, Flintoff 75, Butcher 60) drew with New Zealand 218 (Richardson 60, Vincent 57, Caddick 6-59, Giles 4-102) and 158 for 4 (Vincent 71)
scorecard match home

A final day that started with a bang ended with a whimper as New Zealand batted out time on a becalmed wicket to keep alive their hopes of squaring the series at Auckland. Set a nominal target of 356 runs in 88 overs after Andrew Flintoff had bashed 75 in 44 balls, New Zealand survived with ease, but they were helped by one individual blunder apiece from umpire Steve Dunne, who has had a game to forget, and James Foster.

Dunne failed to give Lou Vincent out on 4 after the ball had come off pad and glove on the way to silly point; he went on to make a match-saving 71, his second half-century of the match. And Foster put down Stephen Fleming shortly after he had arrived at the crease. That would have made it 67 for 3 with more than 50 overs to go, but instead Fleming went on to frustrate England for a further two hours and take New Zealand to safety. His grim-faced innings of 11 in 142 minutes was a contender for Wisden's Slowest Individual Batting table, which already contains five Kiwi entries in the top ten.

There was a shiver of excitement when Matthew Hoggard started to find some reverse-swing late in the afternoon, and removed Vincent (leg-before as he played round a straight one) and Fleming (bowled by a yorker) in quick succession. But England struggled to extract the assistance from the pitch that Ashley Giles and Andy Caddick had found yesterday lunchtime, and New Zealand were quite content to thrust a stubborn pad between England and their hopes.

England's early-morning declaration had been hurried along by a blistering innings from Flintoff, who mixed culture with agriculture to smash the third-fastest recorded Test fifty – in terms of balls received – by an Englishman. Flintoff reached the mark in 33 balls, seven more than Ian Botham needed against India at Delhi in 1981-82, and his innings oozed purest beef.

He came to the wicket in the third over of the day after Mark Butcher had slapped Chris Drum straight to Chris Martin at widish mid-off to fall for 60 (194 for 2). Quick runs were needed, and Flintoff was in the mood. He came down the track to cross-bat Drum over cover for four, and powered him straight down the ground with a violent tilt of the left elbow. He danced like a butterfly to sting Daniel Vettori like a bee, launching him high over long-on for six, and mowing him for a one-bounce four over square leg. Flintoff then took ten off a Drum over: a delicate dab to third man for two ("A slogger? Me?"), followed by a Vulcan-like blow behind point for four and a pummelling pull for four more. Vettori was plonked for another boundary at cow corner, and Flintoff moved to his half-century with a cover-drive for two off Chris Martin.

There was time for four more boundaries, including a huge straight six off Martin, before he gave Vettori a tame return catch off a leading edge and departed to a standing ovation from a small crowd. Flintoff had added 82 in 10.3 overs with Nasser Hussain, whose share had been a quiet 12.

Earlier, Marcus Trescothick, who pulled Drum for six in the first over of the day, sacrificed the chance of a third Test century when he perished in the search for quick runs, top-edging a sweep off Vettori to Richardson at short third man to fall for 88 (209 for 3). England declared on 293 for 4, having added 109 runs in 15 overs to their overnight score and given themselves what appeared to be a decent chance of wrapping up the series.

But after taking the wickets of Mark Richardson for 4 (who top-edged a sweep and was well caught by Graham Thorpe over his shoulder at short fine leg) and Matthew Horne for 38 (who cut at a ball that was too close to him and was caught behind off Flintoff), England were unable to break through for another 34.4 overs. By that stage, though, it was almost too late.

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. You can read his reports here throughout the rest of the tour.

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