Throughout a cloudless day New Zealand fought with the tenacity of an All Black scrum to hang onto a chance of keeping in the second Test with any hope of getting whatever England might leave them in the fourth innings. In the afternoon session especially they succeeded admirably, taking three England wickets after Michael Vaughan had been squared up by Kyle Mills in the morning.

As at Hamilton in England's first innings the ambition to get on top of the bowling was thwarted by disciplined bowling and utterly committed fielding. Two dropped catches, when Alastair Cook had scored only four and before Paul Collingwood had scored, were expensive and spoiled the team performance but it was not until the final session of a long day for the Blackcaps that an English pair appeared to be gaining genuine mastery.

'Appearing' was the word. Ian Bell, having played handsomely during a 59 run partnership with Paul Collingwood without being able to break free, was frustrated by the patient Jacob Oram and drove a wide half volley in the air to point.

The consequence of yet another England innings that contained no major individual performance was that they scored too slowly even to contemplate a declaration on the third evening. There was sufficient life with the second new ball in the last hour of the day, however, for Vaughan and his fast bowlers to feel reasonably confident that they will again be able to knock the top off the New Zealand batting. If James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom can deliver as they should, there should also be plenty of time left for England to win the game.

If they do they will be grateful to Cook at the start of the day and Collingwood at its end for their doggedness. Andrew Strauss, too, played a valuable hand as far as it went but he is barely recognisable in his present careworn, rather pawky mood to the smiling hero of his first Test match against the same opposition at Lord's in 2004 when only a calling error by Nasser Hussain stopped him from scoring a hundred in each innings. A couple more slip catches in the second innings might be necessary if he is to keep Owais Shah out of the side for the third Test. Shah, however, has not batted since making 96 in the first game of the tour almost three weeks ago. Like Anderson last weekend he should ideally have been playing somewhere in New Zealand this weekend.

Cook and Strauss put on 106 for the second wicket, taking England to 106 for one at lunch. Cook's morning was notable not just for the nick that went to ground off McCullum's outstretched left glove off Mills but also for a six hooked to fine-leg off Chris Martin, his first in 49 matches for England played over five days (26), 50 overs (21) and 20 overs (two). He had faced 5740 balls before clearing the boundary but no-one will hold that against the most prolific new arrival in the team since the watershed summer of 2005.

Cook was deftly caught by that impeccable slip fielder, Stephen Fleming in the eleventh over of an afternoon which had started with the tightest of tight bowling by Mills and Oram. Strauss went in the next over, after 137 minutes of determined batting, moving across his stumps to try to work Oram to leg.

Kevin Pietersen came out determined to take charge, drove two fours in the same over from Mills but had himself been constrained when he was out in the worst way of all, run out when backing up after Martin had deflected a straight drive by Bell.

The second new ball and a succession of bouncers from Martin and Gillespie effectively undermined the tail but it was not until the last over that Collingwood hit across the line against Gillespie, leaving England 421 runs in front and hoping for victory tomorrow.

Monty Panesar, after his nightmare in the field on Friday, played a brave little innings at the end and will hope for some bowling, some turn and some wickets in the fourth innings.

England 2nd innings

(overnight 4-0)

AN Cook c Fleming b Mills 60

MP Vaughan c McCullum b Mills 13

AJ Strauss lbw b Oram 44

KP Pietersen run out (Martin) 17

IR Bell c Sinclair b Oram 41

PD Collingwood lbw b Gillespie 59

TR Ambrose b Oram 5

SCJ Broad c McCullum b Martin 16

RJ Sidebottom c How b Gillespie 0

MS Panesar not out 6

Extras(b 6, lb 5, nb 5)16

Total (9 wickets; 94.1 overs) 277

Fall: 1-21, 2-127, 3-129, 4-160, 5-219, 6-231, 7-259, 8-260, 9-277.

Bowling: CS Martin 23-4-72-1; KD Mills 23-5-59-2; JDP Oram 20-9-44-3; MR Gillespie 13.1-1-52-2; DL Vettori 15-2-39-0.