KEY POINTS:
Amid the Manchester murk, New Zealand caught a glimpse of a brighter batting future.
Central Districts pair Jamie How and Ross Taylor showed maturity beyond their experience and helped extract New Zealand from a potentially disastrous first innings after Daniel Vettori won the toss and batted.
Taylor's was
an especially bold knock considering he looked as fidgety as a kitten at Lord's and was dismissed in the first innings playing a shot that would usually have graced a match between Scropton and Uttoxeter in the Staffordshire League.
Playing full-face straight to rare, full-pitched deliveries, and pulling and cutting savagely, Taylor raced to his fourth test 50 in just 52 balls.
Unlike at Lord's, however, he never gave the impression he was in a particular hurry.
New Plymouth-born How (64) carried on from where he left off at Lord's. He had more luck than Taylor, but that is usually the case when you face the new ball on a wicket that offered encouragement to swing, seam and spin. He dominated an opening partnership of 80 with Aaron Redmond (28) before a James Anderson ripper finally undid him.
"It was good to get some runs on the board early," said a surprisingly downbeat How, "especially when you win the toss and bat."
How and Redmond's collaboration was the highest opening partnership for New Zealand in tests since Stephen Fleming and Mark Richardson put on 94 in the second innings of the third test against England at Trent Bridge, four long years ago.
New Zealand's under-fire top six couldn't fully capitalise and, with Peter Fulton waiting in the wings, James Marshall, who bagged his second duck in succession, will feel the need for some second-innings runs.
The lead-up to this test had been dominated by talk, mainly from the England media, about how fast and bouncy the Old Trafford pitch would be. For a while it seemed like more than mere hyperbole, though How did say it was probably a little slower than expected.
Anderson's orthodontic bouncer that cleaned up Daniel Flynn was the most graphic example of how a batsman could be hurried up, but Jacob Oram's headed four off the same bowler shortly after was not far behind.
Oram came into this test standing at 1.98m tall but such was the blow to the top of his noggin, it is almost certain his stature has diminished to 1.97m.
"He's OK. He's a tough little fella," How said of Flynn. "He's of good ND [Northern Districts] stock."
For all the pace and bounce, it was a surprise to see Monty Panesar come in to bowl the 10th over and an even bigger surprise to see him immediately get some purchase.
New Zealand's skipper gazes fondly upon strips of dirt that produce turn, and would have gone to bed with a smile on his face, thinking that if they can post enough runs to give England something challenging to chase on the final day, they are in with a chance of becoming the first New Zealand team to win in seven attempts at this ground.
That will depend on many things, weather included. With rain and bad light wiping out large chunks of four of the seven days cricket played in this series, a draw might be the most likely result. But whereas at Lord's New Zealand happily settled for that, here they should not be so willing.
"It looks like a good wicket [but] Dan may come into his own a bit later. It's got that nature to it; it's a bit dusty and a bit dry. But in saying that, talking to some people, they say it holds together reasonably well."
With the pitch showing every chance of deteriorating, New Zealand might just find they had the best batting conditions in the first two days - even if the battered Flynn and Oram would have found that hard to accept.
