England are ready to stick with their struggling middle order after pulling off one of the greatest comebacks in recent Test cricket yesterday, overturning a first-innings deficit of 179 to beat New Zealand by six wickets at Old Trafford thanks to a brilliantly composed hundred by a born-again Andrew Strauss.

Michael Vaughan ranked the victory among the best of his 25 wins in 47 games as captain because England were down and out at the halfway stage on a turning pitch, but recovered to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. He reserved much of his praise for Strauss and Monty Panesar, who was named man of the match for his six wickets in the New Zealand second innings.

Strauss, dropped for the Sri Lanka tour last year, has scored 177, 63, 60 and 106 in his past four Test innings, a run that may help him back into the one-day squad for the NatWest Series against New Zealand, due to be announced on Friday. “It is that mystery thing - form,” he said. “I cannot explain it.”

The lesson may be that a break from Test cricket can be more effective than trying to struggle through a poor run, but Vaughan hinted at an unchanged squad for the final game at Trent Bridge, starting a week on Thursday. All of the side, including Paul Collingwood, will be rested for Friday's round of LV County Championship matches.

A victory chase of 294 far exceeded the previous best of 231 to win in the fourth innings at an Old Trafford Test match and Vaughan was quick to praise Ian Bell and Collingwood, who reached double figures for only the second time this season, in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 46 that took England over the line.

Neither batsman looked especially convincing, but Vaughan said: “Having them out there at the end should give them a lot of confidence. They were both under a lot of pressure, they knew it and they came through it. We showed in the second innings that the batting unit can work under pressure.”

Describing Strauss as “a class act”, Vaughan said: “At this level you need good character and mental strength and the players who last longest in Test cricket possess both qualities. Andrew has them in abundance. I am sure he will say that the break he had at the end of last season did him the world of good.

“He went away and worked on things mentally and a couple of things technically and he arrived in New Zealand a rejuvenated character. I never had a doubt that he would come back. When you have just won a Test you always put them up there with the best, but this must be very close to being as good a win as we have had.”

New Zealand struggled almost as soon as they became favourites to take a 1-0 lead. “We lost a game that we should have won,” Daniel Vettori, the captain, said. “Our third-innings performances have been a rap on us for a while, but I put it down to not assessing the conditions, a very poor batting performance and disappointing bowling.”

The victory was England's fifth in six matches at Old Trafford and the loudest cheer at the presentation ceremony came when Mike Atherton, the Lancastrian and former England captain, asked Vaughan, of Yorkshire, whether he would be having words with the ECB to bring Test cricket back to Manchester before 2012, the earliest date for a return.

- West Indies’ run-chase, which was of a similar order to England’s, faltered in Jamaica yesterday as the Australia fast bowlers ripped apart the home side’s top order to take a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series. Resuming on 46 for one, with 241 more needed for a win that had appeared unlikely after two days, West Indies slipped to 82 for six and 191 all out. Stuart Clark took career-best figures of five for 32 in 20 overs and Brett Lee removed the danger men, Runako Morton and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.