Ambrose fights back

Tim Ambrose hooks Chris Martin over fine leg for six en route to a battling unbeaten 97

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Tim Ambrose moved to within touching distance of a maiden Test century after leading a spirited England counter-attack on the first day of the second Test against New Zealand in Wellington.

The wicketkeeper-batsman, playing only his second Test, arrived at the crease shortly before tea with the tourists reeling on 136 for five and the New Zealand seamers rampant on a helpful surface.

But he hit a combative unbeaten 97, sharing a crucial unbroken sixth-wicket stand with Paul Collingwood that carried England to 291 for five by the close.

The largely circumspect Collingwood was unbeaten on 48 when the players left the field at the end of a pulsating day, his increasingly valuable partnership with Ambrose worth 155 runs but immeasurably more in terms of confidence to the England side following a post-lunch wobble.

Ambrose was by far the more aggressive of the pair, hitting 15 fours and two sixes off the 137 balls he faced as he helped wrest the initiative back from New Zealand after the loss of five wickets for just 57 runs after lunch.

He responded to the situation with considerable courage and spirit, surviving a blow to the helmet early in his innings before capitalising on every opportunity to attack, underlining the positive impression made in hitting 55 in his first Test innings last week.

If the tourists took the morning honours by reaching 79 without loss by lunch despite losing the toss, any advantage they had gained was wiped out within an hour of the resumption.

Jacob Oram bowled Michael Vaughan with the second ball after lunch, then accounted for Alastair Cook in his next over, deserved reward for a magnificent spell spanning both sessions.

Kyle Mills removed Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell was dropped twice before falling to Chris Martin, and Mark Gillespie bowled Kevin Pietersen for 31 to leave England tottering.

Michael Vaughan has his off bail removed by a magnificent leg-cutter from Jacob Oram

England’s post-lunch trouble contrasted sharply with Cook and Vaughan’s progress in the opening two hours.

Though the ball did not deviate as much as many observers expected early on - in the air or off the pitch - the openers were not overly inconvenienced during a morning session that suggested England had banished the memory of their 189-run defeat in the first Test.

Vaughan pulled Mills imperiously over midwicket off one leg, while Cook twice drove Gillespie - recalled to the side at Jeetan Patel’s expense - past point in the over that saw England pass 50.

However, Oram’s immaculate burst before lunch hinted at tougher times ahead, and Vaughan fell for 32 almost immediately after the interval, his off bail removed by as good a leg-cutter as one is likely is see.

Oram accounted for Cook, who made 44, moments later, the left-hander edging behind as he pushed at a ball slanted across him from over the wicket.

Strauss hardly looked comfortable in reaching eight, and he too fell to an indeterminate stroke, driving Mills tamely to Mathew Sinclair at point as he let go of the bat with his bottom hand.

Bell was fortunate to see a top-edged hook off the first ball he faced, bowled by Mills, slip past Gillespie’s fingertips as he ran in from fine leg, and he was reprieved on one when wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum failed to grasp a tough chance diving to his right off the superb Oram, who nevertheless went it at tea boasting figures of 14-7-8-2.

Paul Collingwood is struck on the body as he and Ambrose set about repairing the damage

Though Bell, who faced 28 successive dot balls, grew in confidence to unfurl textbook drives through extra cover and mid-off, he perished pushing tentatively at a delivery from Martin that he could have left.

And when Pietersen was bowled through the gate by Gillespie aiming marginally to leg, England had lost five wickets in the session and there was no doubt where the balance of power lay.

Ambrose, far from overawed by the situation despite having made a duck in the second innings in Hamilton, signalled his intent by hitting Gillespie for three fours in the last over before tea, which also saw him duck into a bouncer.

And he continued in much the same vein when play resumed, riding a storm of short deliveries to hook Martin for six over fine leg, drive Oram through mid-off - the first boundary he conceded, in his 18th over - and cut Daniel Vettori behind point.

In fact, the occasional play and miss aside - an eminently forgivable sin on a surface which encouraged the seamers throughout - Ambrose barely put a foot wrong.

He relished the opportunity to latch on to anything remotely loose, cutting with particular authority as he raced to a 68-ball fifty containing eight fours and a six.

There was another maximum, a pull off Mills, as he and Collingwood prospered even further late in the day, and the fact that Ambrose could afford himself a smile after he failed to hit the boundary that would have taken him to three figures in the final over, said much for his state of mind.