Bad Day For Nasser

Once again, play was washed out for the first session, but soon got underway after lunch, with New Zealand taking their 151-5 overnight score to 202, mainly thanks to Harris (71) and Parore (45), Parore playing in final Test before retiring.

Nass dropped Andre Adams in the slips, though it was a hard chance and Adams was out a few runs later.
Essex's other player in the team, keeper James Foster, conceeded no byes behind the stumps, though still unfortunately had no chances to take either.

Caddick took no more wickets to add to his 1st day 4-70, but Hoggard and Flintoff each took 3 a piece to clear up the tail.

But then, it went wrong. As the 1st Test, both Threscothick and Butcher fell for ducks in the first over, this time from Daryl Tuffey, as England again slumped to 0-2.

It didn't get much better, as captain Nasser, looking for 78 to achieve 4,000 runs in Test cricket, edged Chris Drum (another New Zealand player to retire after this game) to his fellow captain Stephen Fleming for just 2 (9 balls) leaving England on 11-3.

Vaughan and Thorpe added 1 run before bad light brought proceedings to an end, leaving England on 12-3.

A tough couple of days ahead for Fossy and co with the bat. New Zealand have turned it around, but the rain could still yet have a factor. Nonetheless, England will be confident of recovering like New Zealand did and don't forget we were also 0-2 after the 1st over in the 1st Test and went on to win.

As they say, cricket's a funny old game!

Date: 1/4/02