In his short England career, Ryan Sidebottom has produced more than his fair share of wonderballs that failed to secure the wickets they deserved, and suffered more than most from dropped catches by errant team-mates.

But it was payback time on the first day of the first Test in New Zealand, as the straggled-haired left-arm fast bowler, in finishing with the best figures of the day (two for 39 from 21 overs), claimed wickets with widish deliveries that might easily have gone for four, and served up a rank short ball that led directly to Ian Bell's nasty wrist injury at short leg.

For once, it was time for Sidebottom to extend the hand of friendship to his fielders: to Bell after his mishap and to Alastair Cook for a diving catch at point to dismiss Stephen Fleming, ironically the man whose testimony, as Sidebottom's captain at Nottinghamshire, had done so much to win him his recall to the Test team last year.

On the eve of the game, Michael Vaughan had spoken of the importance of England establishing a position of dominance as quickly as they could, but not for the first time of late his players failed to deliver. This was a pretty ordinary day's work by an attack struggling to find its best form.

Given that New Zealand passed 100 with only one wicket down, Vaughan would have been very relieved to end the day with six wickets in the bag for 282.

After his struggles in Sri Lanka, this was a good comeback by Monty Panesar, who bowled with control and cunning for most of the afternoon from the City End, but as so often during the last nine months, Sidebottom was the most miserly of England's bowlers.

Coming into the game short of practice after straining a hamstring, Sidebottom wasn't at his best but, in mitigation, once the ball stopped swinging, which it did quite swiftly, these were pretty good conditions for batting and his wide-of-off-stump line may well have been a deliberate sorched-earth policy, a ploy to draw batsmen into false strokes.

It worked with Fleming and, right at the end of the day with the second new ball, with the dangerous Brendon McCullum, who only just got to the ball he feathered to Tim Ambrose behind the stumps. Thankfully for Ambrose, the chance stuck; it was Matt Prior's inability to hold onto edges created by an increasingly intolerant Sidebottom that led to the switch in glovemen.

Sidebottom bowled better as the day went on. He conceded only five boundaries and two of those came moments after the distress of seeing Ian Bell cracked painfully on the right wrist from a pull shot by Matthew Bell off Sidebottom's own bowling. Vaughan immediately pulled Sidebottom out of the attack.

After lunch, though, Sidebottom settled into a better rhythm and four maidens in five overs played its part in the wickets of Fleming and Mathew Sinclair, who fell to Paul Collingwood. Both were chafing at the bit when they were out.

With Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison both going for more than four runs an over, England would have been in dire straits without Sidebottom and Panesar. Sidebottom may have bowled too wide of off stump but at least his line was consistent; Harmison and Hoggard were plain erratic.

Sidebottom's virtues aren't very racy ones. As a bowler, he looks to bore out opponents by putting the ball in the same spot time after time and frustrating them into mistakes; as a batsman, he is one of the world's best blockers and doesn't do anything as exciting as hits for six. In this era of Twenty20 glitz and glamour, he is rather old-fashioned - but incredibly useful.

Explore Cricket

• Counties