England V New Zealand 2013

Match Drawn - England 421-6. Compton went on to make 116.Nightwatchman Finn made 52 as he & Trott (56) added 90 for the 3rd wicket.4 wickets fell for 35 runs before Bell & Prior secured the draw.

I'd give New Zealand a lot of credit for giving England something to think about. Let's hope Flower can iron out the problems that a few batsmen had in this game and get them back into a winning Test match mentality before the next Test.

Finn has been confirmed as permanent nightwatchman now and is also going to bat ahead of Anderson in the usual batting order, meaning that when Panesar isn't playing Anderson will be down at no. 11.

If you consider that they agreed to call time early with no other likely result other than a draw.the match would still be in the balance with the overs lost on the first day.Englands lead was 128 & a potential 75 overs to be bowled.

Another England tour, and another poor performance in their 1st innings batting...

Have they just been unlucky with the toss or are they underprepared.

It was an important recovery from England and lets hope they have learned a valuable lesson not to take any team lightly as I think they did early in the match. Some of the dismissals smacked of complacency and arrogance imo.
All this media talk about building up to the Ashes does not help. Forget the Ashes and focus on the present.
England got away with one in this first test and need to apply themselves much better in Wellington.
This being said Pietersen and particularly Panesar had very little or no time in the middle prior to the test match which is not ideal.

Both teams are unchanged for the second test. New Zealand won the toss and elected to field.

A good solid start by England as they made it through to lunch with the loss of only Cook,who got a ball that seemed to stop on him.Compton looked to be playing with more fluency,with the ball rarely beating the bat with very little swing or seam on offer.

Lunch - 75-1 Cook 17 Compton 34 not out Trott 19 not out

Close Day 1 - England 267-2 Trott 121 not out Compton 100

After a faultless innings by Trott yesterday he was out to the first ball that he faced today.At the mid-point of the first session England have moved on to 298-3