England face daunting deficit

The tourists had battled hard during the morning session and only lost all-rounder Paul Collingwood for a battling 66 during another defensive display which added only 61 runs in 33 overs before lunch.

But immediately after the interval they lost Tim Ambrose and Steve Harmison to successive balls before last man Monty Panesar fell to the seventh delivery with the new ball to dismiss England for only 348.

They had resumed the fourth morning trailing by 184 runs on 286 for six, knowing an early loss of wickets would give New Zealand a significant advantage.

Neither Collingwood, who resumed overnight on 41, or Ambrose were in any hurry to score during the early stages and took 29 balls before they claimed the first run off the bat. They added only 28 in the 17 overs bowled in the first hour, although Collingwood progressed to his half-century by edging seamer Chris Martin to third man for the ninth four of his innings.

But after surviving the first hour, both batsmen began to branch out with Collingwood driving all-rounder Jacob Oram over long-off for six when he was introduced into the attack.

Oram was unlucky not to claim the first breakthrough with Ambrose, who had progressed to 43, edging behind as he pushed forward defensively only for wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum to drop the catch standing up to the stumps.

His next over was more successful, however, with Oram winning the first lbw decision of the match to end Collingwood's four hours of defiance.

Ambrose completed his half-century before the interval with a cover drive off Oram to claim the fifth boundary of his innings, but fell just three balls after lunch when he drove at Jeetan Patel and edged low to Stephen Fleming at slip for 55. Harmison followed to the next delivery when he attempted a pre-determined sweep shot which flicked off his shoulder into Fleming's safe hands.

Panesar lasted for 21 minutes but with the second over with the new ball - and the first of the day from seamer Kyle Mills - he ended the innings by hitting him low on the pad in front of the stumps.