New Zealand v England: Hamish Rutherford turns the screw despite James Anderson's fightback Perhaps it was in that latter capacity he acted, feeling frustrated that his team mates had taken rather too long in this match to get their game faces on. He has a point and it does seem that England's cricketers must spend at least a day or two on the floor before their competitive instincts are awakened. If there is a pattern, these dips seem to occur after the players have as stint on Civvy Street, which suggests it is insurmountable given that everybody deserves rest. If you exclude their two tours to Bangladesh, England have begun the opening Tests of overseas series indifferently for the best part of the new millennium. This was a new nadir, at least for an opening day, though the damage could stretch well beyond it. With Peter Fulton beginning Anderson's haul, after edging a low catch to Matt Prior, his fourth wicket arrived when Dean Brownlie chopped on. It was his 292nd Test victim and providing he stays fit he should go past Derek Underwood's 297 in this series. After him only the illustrious trio, Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Fred Trueman, lie ahead. Anderson is principally a swing bowler but with a southerly blowing up from Antarctica it was so cold and grey at the University Oval yesterday that conventional swing was not an option. Instead, he charged in and hit the pitch hard, his energy urging the ball to seam, which it did occasionally under the leaden cloud. He garnered respect from everyone except Rutherford, whose father Ken played 56 Tests for New Zealand. The young left-hander is just beginning his attempt to imprint himself on cricket history and has his whole career ahead of him. In what will seem a ludicrous comparison, given he has barely begun his journey, there were shades of Brian Lara in his off-side shots especially off the back foot. An off-stump line is what tends to give bowlers control at the top level, but Rutherford, as Lara did, pounces on anything wide of middle with relish, carving it away with disdain for four. Phil Hughes, Australia's mercurial number three, has a similar modus operandi except that Rutherford has proper leg-side shots as well and defuses the threat of the bouncer by watching it like a hawk, swaying out of the way, and dropping his hands away from the danger zone. His was a mature innings shot through with the confidence and fearlessness of youth. This fabulous innings might not have been, though, and in an irony not lost on him or his fans he would probably not have played here had Martin Guptill not pulled his hamstring in the opening one-day international nearly three weeks ago. Indeed, Guptill might still have been able to take guard in the Test had he not played the hero in Hamilton and returned to the crease (damaging his hamstring further) to see New Zealand home alongside his captain Brendon McCullum. McCullum played a captain's innings of sorts again yesterday, after his team failed to build strongly on Rutherford's confident century. Short and powerful, his forte is back foot shots as Anderson discovered when he took three fours off him in an over. He and Tim Southee combined in a breezy stand of 43 in 26 balls before Southee slogged at Stuart Broad once too often and was bowled. It was Broad's first Test wicket since the South Africa Test at Lord's and his first for 66 overs, which is a drought of biblical proportions for a bowler who used to take the new ball. The rain that had threatened before tea finally materialised just after it to bring an early close with New Zealand 402-7 and a lead of 235. England's prospects still look bleak but they have about a 30 percent record of saving matches batting third when the deficit is 250 runs or above. Trouble is Monty Panesar got one ball to sit up and spit at McCullum like a cobra, an outbreak of which would make their task of drawing the match that much more difficult.