NZ exploit puritan ethos

CRICKET/England v New Zealand: The cricket reflected its environment at Headingley yesterday. Austere, attritional cricket, devoid of frippery and played by puritans. Oliver Cromwell and Martin Luther would have made ideal captains for this match.

For most of the second day of this Test it was New Zealand who held the upper hand as England, well below their best Caribbean standard, struggled to come to terms with a pitch that offered encouragement to the bowlers.

Only when the second new ball became available after tea did Michael Vaughan's pace bowlers haul the side back into contention after Michael Papps and Stephen Fleming, painstakingly, had laid down the foundations.

Wickets, one always felt, would fall in clutches here, though, and after Andy Flintoff broke the obdurate second-wicket partnership with the last delivery of the 80th over, removing Papps for 86, Steve Harmison dismissed Fleming only three short of a seventh Test century and Martin Saggers promptly snared the dangerous Nathan Astle thanks to an acrobatic catch by Mark Butcher.

Harmison was to return for a second go with the new ball and collected the wicket of Scott Styris straight away.

With the shadows lengthening in the early evening, Jacob Oram, playing as a batsman rather than an all-rounder because of a side strain, had settled in, once top-edging Harmison for a six which bounced on to the players' balcony, and Chris Cairns began to look threatening.

Flintoff's subsequent dismissal of Oram, well caught for 39 by Graham Thorpe at second slip, was an important one towards the end of a testing day, but it was to be the last success.

Cairns, on 41, and Brendon McCullum, who has made 31, will resume today having already added 58 for the seventh.

At 351 for six, New Zealand, always provided their bowlers find some form, have a strong grip on the game.

Generally this was an unsatisfactory performance by England. The day began overcast and, although there was a chill wind blowing across the ground from the Western Stand, sufficient to disrupt a bowler's rhythm, with a ball only 19 overs old these were still good conditions in which to bowl.

Harmison, scourge of the West Indies, adhered largely to the length he employed out there but, if he sent down a number of deliveries that climbed wickedly, drawing applause from the slip cordon and gasps from the crowd, they were inconsequential as far as Papps and Fleming were concerned.

Both batsmen were sufficiently confident of the bounce in the pitch to be able to leave the ball on length alone. Harmison needed to pitch farther up.

Instead, while Matthew Hoggard struggled with his technique, it was Saggers, putting some pressure on the Yorkshireman now, who was the pick of the bowlers, particularly when coming down the hill with the right-to-left wind helping his away swing.

None of the bowlers received the level of support in the field they have come to expect, encapsulated by a scruffy period mid-morning.

Papps, on 36, was missed by Ashley Giles in the gully, and Fleming, 23 then, immediately survived a run-out when Paul Collingwood, substituting briefly for Giles, missed a relatively simple underarm throw.