Seamers put England in control

Delayed by rain until 1.20pm, England won a crucial toss and put the tourists into bat in conditions ideal for swing and seam bowling and quickly exposed their inexperienced top six.

Lancashire seamer James Anderson claimed three wickets and Stuart Broad also claimed two and it took a determined, unbeaten 36 from Brendon McCullum to guide New Zealand to 109 for five at tea on the opening day.

Given the new ball, Anderson made the breakthrough in his first over when Aaron Redmond, one of two debutants in the New Zealand line-up alongside Daniel Flynn, edged a short delivery low to Alastair Cook at third slip for a duck.

Anderson could have claimed his second victim in his third over when new batsman James Marshall, who had progressed to nine, edged behind only for umpire Simon Taufel to call a no-ball for overstepping.

His disappointment at that incident was quickly overcome in his next over, however, when he removed opener Jamie How with a superb, full-pitched delivery which he edged as it left him and was caught behind by wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose.

The bowler-friendly conditions persuaded Ross Taylor that his best tactic was to go on the attack and he quickly raced to 19 off 20 balls, which included two wild slashes past gully for four.

Attempting to pull a full-length ball from Broad, however, his luck ran out and instead he got a top edge which flew high in the air and allowed Paul Collingwood to run back from second slip to complete the catch.

Marshall battled on for a further 11 overs before becoming Broad's second victim when he pushed forward to an away-swinger and edged to first slip where Andrew Strauss took a waist-high catch.

Just as McCullum thought he had found a willing partner in debutant Flynn, however, he walked across his stumps attempting to flick Anderson through midwicket and was bowled after the ball brushed his pad before clipping leg-stump.