England's attack still misfiring as New Zealand pile on the runs

At the moment they are struggling to put away one of the worst. On the evidence of their distinctly ordinary efforts on day two of the second Test at Old Trafford, the series victory against New Zealand that England expected, as the next element in their progressive plan to defeat Australia, will prove considerably tougher than they first thought.

In control: New Zealand's avoids a short ball from England's Stuart Broad

Prior to the opener of this three-Test npower series at Lord's, skipper Michael Vaughan bullishly declared: "We're in a better position than we were a year before winning the Ashes in 2005.'"

He described New Zealand as 'workmanlike' and demanded victory 'in convincing fashion'. Instead, as they resume this morning the best part of halfway through the rubber, his side are battling to achieve parity against a team decimated by retirements (Stephen Fleming and Scott Styris), the defection to the Indian Cricket League of Shane Bond, Craig McMillan and Lou Vincent and correctly placed seventh in the ICC rankings ahead of only West Indies and Bangladesh.

Andrew Strauss fell after making his 24th Test fifty and with Vaughan (30) and nightwatchman Ryan Sidebottom out as they finished 152-4, England may need the expected bad weather to help them avoid an embarrassing defeat.

Even if they do, the underlying message delivered by Ross Taylor's brilliant unbeaten 154 in New Zealand's 381-9 is that the threat offered by this England attack here and now is light years away from that carried out by the famous '05 combination of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones and Ashley Giles at their peak.

If confirmation were required, a glance at the top 20 in the latest Test batting rankings shows that while Indians occupy five places, Australians the top two positions and two more, England four, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka two each and West indies one, there is not a Kiwi to be seen.

Let's face it, no matter how much promise is contained in a top six of Jamie How, Aaron Redmond, James Marshall, Taylor, Brendon McCullum and Daniel Flynn, world-class they ain't. Conversely, Taylor isn't the only one who has found Sidebottom, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Monty Panesar to his liking in recent times. For when he passed 120 yesterday, he became the fifth of them to record their Test best in the past three games - all against England.

Granted, two of those, Redmond and Flynn (unable to resume yesterday following his dental rearrangement by Anderson on day one, but later given the all-clear by a neurosurgeon) are playing in only their second Tests.

Anguish: England's Stuart Broad (right) holds his head after Andrew Strauss misses out on a catch

But there's no arguing with Tim Southee's 77 not out, from No 9 in the final Test in Napier, Taylor's boundary-laden effort here which featured 17 fours and five sixes, or Kyle Mills' 57 from 78 balls in their stand of 89 for the seventh wicket, which blunted England's hopes of building a winning position.

Nor with the fact that England have let it slip after making major inroads into all three New Zealand innings in this series. They were 104-5 and 115-4 at Lord's but recovered to 277 and a draw-saving 269-6.

Yesterday, England allowed the Kiwis to add 215 to the 136-5 they found themselves on here when Flynn walked off on day one. What's more, the mode of the dismissals they did manage was anything but encouraging for their prospects of blasting the Kiwis away second time round.

First, Jacob Oram hesitated in mid-pitch and was run out by Alastair Cook's direct throw from backward point. Two balls later, Daniel Vettori comfortably made his ground before Tim Ambrose took Panesar's throw from backward square leg, but umpire Simon Taufel called for replays which showed the captain had neglected to ground his bat and his foot was in the air.

These two 'gimme' run-outs were added to only when Anderson bowled Mills off his inside edge cutting way outside off stump, Iain O'Brien was caught slogging and Chris Martin, easily the worst batsman in Test cricket, missed a straight one. The 2009 Ashes suddenly seems far too close for comfort.