England make inroads but NZ pass 400 (From Burnley and Pendle Citizen)
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England make inroads but NZ pass 400
2:39am Saturday 23rd March 2013 in National Sport News © Press Association 2013
Peter Fulton's seven-and-a-half-hour innings ended with a spectacular catch behind down the leg-side by Matt Prior, third left
England hit back with five wickets in two sessions and limited New Zealand's dominance to a teatime 414 for six on day two of the final Test at Eden Park.
The hosts nonetheless retained a significant advantage, on the back of Peter Fulton's 136 and his second-wicket stand of 181 with Kane Williamson (91).
Two wickets for James Anderson - one with a very good ball and the other with a long hop - took him level with Derek Underwood on the all-time list of England's most successful Test bowlers and within three of 300.
Anderson expertly found Williamson's outside edge in backward-defence as the number three went caught behind after a 199-ball stay, in which he had hit 15 fours and looked a class act throughout. Stoic opener Fulton stayed put, contributing just five runs out of 24 in the first hour's play on another sunny day.
He almost ground to a halt, having passed his maiden hundred on Friday, as England starved him of scoring opportunities through his favoured leg-side.
Fulton took 100 balls to score 28 runs, after reaching three figures - including 23 spent stuck on 124. That sequence was broken when he clipped an Anderson inswinger aerially through midwicket for three to take his total leg-side runs to 101.
Ross Taylor tried to energise proceedings but followed a six and four over midwicket in one Monty Panesar over by chipping a return catch tamely back at the slow left-armer.
When Fulton's seven-and-a-half-hour innings then ended with a spectacular catch behind down the leg-side by Matt Prior off Steven Finn, England sensed an opportunity. But they were to be disappointed before lunch when danger-man Brendon McCullum successfully overturned Paul Reiffel's decision, to survive both caught behind and lbw when Finn thought he had him one way or the other for a second-ball duck.
McCullum would fall short of a seventh half-century in eight innings against England this winter, but still shared an important stand of 68 with Dean Brownlie until he became part-time medium-pacer Jonathan Trott's fourth Test victim - edging some full-length swing behind, where Prior took another neat catch standing up.
Anderson had Brownlie cutting a poor delivery low to backward-point to go joint fourth in England's list of Test wicket-takers. But Tim Southee launched some effective hitting, including successive pulled sixes off Stuart Broad, as the Kiwis went past 400.
