NZ will have plenty of time to bowl England out. Declare with a lead of around 300-350. England will have to bat out around 4-5 sessions..will be tough

Approaching 500 now
I'm getting more confident we can win this by an innings

Overcast conditions..new ball..could make a couple of inroads within the first few overs

right, New Zealand are facked now

Dear oh!! dear.....there are quite a few lads getting a bit hot under the collar here...
What's the matter lads....something not going your way or what....such a shame......ya gotta laugh..

India 2

Aussie drug takers 0

Get back in your kennel, Rabid

Well played chaps!

That should shut the wums up for a session or two. I wouldn't say that England are out of the woods yet - this pitch is specifically designed for teams to be skittled out cheaply on days one and four...

NZ won the toss and looked like world beaters. They aren't. I would put them on a par with India and Australia - just making up the numbers

Cook............... a legend in the making !!

Much better....and i guess i owe Compton an apology or two. Would be good to see him tomorrow getting a really BIG hundred as that would definitely sooth most of his nerves but much better from, England. Now for the bowlers to find their groove, I'm kinda disappointed that Swann is not going to be there

Great days play. Stopped watching at 1am, knowing our openers were well in. Top marks to Cook & Compton for pulling us out of the mire

I stopped watching at 1am, been in work since 7!

Loving the "banter" between the English and Aussies on here.

I thought the Paks and Indians were bad

On a serious note, England were never going to be as poor as they were in the first innings. Draw fair result now

Really good knock from Compton, on a pair, his place under pressure from a lot of people and with England up against it he really came through. Well played to him he deserves a lot of credit. Cook, well he just did what he always does, score runs for fun. Finally we win a day.

Working on Saturdays, Wethers?! Probably done it twice in my life! Saturday is for football!

There in spirit,champers, there in spirit !!

What do we think, guys? England to bat until tea, lead of 160ish and then give themselves a very small chance of bowling out the Kiwis, or just bat until an hour before close and draw the game?

Third option is an England collapse and NZ chase a target of 50-100 runs and win the game.

or just bat until an hour before close and draw the game?

==================

that one

Use the day up batting and take the draw, if possible, which will maybe help a few players' form in preparation for the rest of the series

Avoid defeat by batting all day. NZ are more than capable of knocking off 150 in 20 overs.

Steven Finn what a legend. Showing the benign nature of the wicket, and how badly we batted in the 1st inns. Saying that, the NZ bowlers have hardly covered themselves in glory, having served up some inconsistent stuff.

Here's hoping the next 2 tracks have a bit of life in them.

Should be about 120 ahead hopefully with only about 4 down at tea,then the test should be safe.

Finished a draw.
Disappointing we couldn't get the wickets, but well batted England even if it was a flat and dead wicket. On to the next one this Thursday!

Well done NZ: batted and bowled splendidly. No more to say.

But what to say about England. So many problems. They turned up for this game unprepared and batted lazily. They didn't respect NZ. A total shambles. You can't blame the players entirely - what does management do to prepare the players? Who knows. What is the reaction to this shambles - who knows?

It seems to me they just stumble on to the next match without any real investigation into why they performed so badly.