It always seems to be the same at the start of England tours: they hope for a comfortable hot bath but find themselves immersed in an icy cold one. They got their traditional douche of reality at the start of their first-class programme and they will need to stay awake from now on.

Excuses are possible because they lost an important toss, but they are better not made. On the opening day they were outbowled, outbatted and given a sharp and timely reminder that even at a time when New Zealand cricket is at a relatively low ebb, the best of their remaining players are neither to be bullied nor underestimated.

I understand that England were intending to bat first anyway on a bright, cool morning yesterday. That would have been an extraordinary misjudgment, either of their own prowess or of the dangers lurking in a pitch that had been covered by coconut matting for the two days of the warm-up game. Either way, they were condemned to a tricky day on which Jamie How guaranteed his Test recall by mastering England’s fast bowlers. The experience a salutary one for the touring team.

Put in on a fresh, dampish, thickly grassed and lively surface, they were bowled out for 131, a total that would have been much lower but for a shrewd and feisty fifty from Kevin Pietersen. Without doubt, the pitch had eased by the time that England's last four wickets fell after lunch, but what is beyond argument is that they failed to grind their way through the first two hours as the conditions demanded. Their bowling was disappointingly inconsistent when they had the chance to repair the damage. Peter Moores, the England head coach, said: “They [the home batsmen] left the ball well and I thought our own batting was a little loose.”

How and Matthew Bell, his probable Test opening partner in Hamilton next week, played with admirable judgment, impressive technique and better footwork than any of England's top order, bar Pietersen. They shared a first-wicket partnership of 98 before Matthew Hoggard made the breakthrough with a ball that left Bell off a full length, but it had taken 25 overs and the new ball had produced nothing.

It should not have done because these were conditions made for the likes of Hoggard and the absent Ryan Sidebottom, whose hamstring strain has made the bowling combination for the first Test very uncertain. Hoggard's only wicket was a carbon copy of many of the dismissals in the morning, when Bevan Griggs, the wicketkeeper, took four similar edges as the new ball zipped about off the seam. It was one of those increasingly rare days when batsmen deserved congratulations for getting a touch.

Unlike Stephen Harmison and Chris Tremlett, who are short of match practice, the home attack of Iain O'Brien, Mark Gillespie and their two supporting seam bowlers, Grant Elliott and Mark Orchard, obeyed the rules for conditions such as these. So counselled, no doubt, by their coach, the ubiquitous Andy Moles, they all put the ball on a length close to an off-stump line, hit the seam and relied on secure catching behind the stumps. Vaughan lasted two balls, Andrew Strauss only 17 before edging as he tried to withdraw from a pull. Alastair Cook got a leading edge to cover, Ian Bell followed a ball that left him sharply and Paul Collingwood eventually edged his 35th ball after 40 minutes of struggle.

Pietersen also played and missed a good deal, but he got well forward and chose the right ball to drive. He was not brought up on pitches such as this, but he was cool and decisive, hitting nine fours before he, too, got an outside edge.

There was consolation after that only in the tidy batting of Tim Ambrose, until he went back to a ball of fullish length, and in a solid effort by Tremlett, whose batting ability makes him on a par with Stuart Broad and a better proposition at No 8 in a Test order than any of the other seam bowlers vying for a place next week.

England XI: First Innings

A N Cook c Patel b Gillespie 19

*M P Vaughan c Griggs b O'Brien 0

A J Strauss c How b O'Brien 5

K P Pietersen c Griggs b Orchard 50

I R Bell c Griggs b Elliott 10

P D Collingwood c Griggs b Elliott 2

T R Ambrose lbw b O'Brien 12

C T Tremlett not out 17

M J Hoggard b O'Brien 2

S J Harmison c Taylor b Gillespie 0

M S Panesar b Gillespie 4

Extras (lb 6, w 2, nb 2) 10

Total (40.1 overs) 131

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-17, 3-38, 4-64, 5-91, 6-95, 7-122, 8-124, 9-125.

Bowling: Gillespie 14.1-0-62-3; O'Brien 12-2-34-4; Elliott 8-3-12-2; Orchard 6-2-17-1.

New Zealand Selection XI: First Innings

M D Bell c Ambrose b Hoggard 40

*J M How c Cook b Tremlett 65

P G Fulton lbw b Collingwood 23

L R P L Taylor c Strauss b Harmison 8

M S Sinclair not out 14

G D Elliott not out 13

Extras (lb 10, w 1, nb 3) 14

Total (4 wkts, 47 overs) 177

M G Orchard, B B J Griggs (wk), J S Patel, M R Gillespie and I E O'Brien to bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-98, 2-127, 3-144, 4-148.

Bowling: Hoggard 14-5-32-1; Tremlett 13-3-50-1; Harmison 12-0-59-1; Collingwood 5-0-19-1; Panesar 3-1-7-0.

Umpires: B G Frost and P D Jones.