Only 55.4 overs were possible on the second day of the opening Test, with five interruptions for bad light causing great frustration for players and spectators.

When play was called off at 6.40pm, with England 68-0 in reply to New Zealand's first innings 277, the lights on the electronic scoreboard shone through the gloom like a cinema projector.

Even the famous red-bricked pavilion looked colourless and forlorn, while the leaden skies that clung to St John's Wood put one in mind of a Lowry painting.

One could only feel sorry for the long-suffering crowd, who braved temperatures even colder than those of the first day to watch a grand aggregate of 137 runs and four wickets.

Never was that sympathy more pronounced than when the teams emerged following the lunch break only for umpires Steve Bucknor and Simon Taufel to lead them off for bad light just two balls later; as someone once said, it's a funny old game.

Michael Vaughan's England hold the upper hand, but whether they have sufficient time to force a result is open to question. More bad weather is forecast for today, with the recent heat wave now a distant memory, but if the home team can gain a reasonable first innings advantage they could yet get their summer off to the best possible start.

Vaughan himself was doubtless relieved that Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook negotiated the final passages of play without alarm, thus preventing him having to negotiate the gloomy conditions on the back of his disappointing start to the season – just 135 runs in seven innings for Yorkshire.

Strauss showed enough in the short time available to support Vaughan's assertion that, just as the captain is happier at No 3, so the Middlesex man prefers to open the batting, even though that has led to the break-up of the left-hand/right-hand Alastair Cook/Vaughan combination. Cook finished unbeaten on 43 from 61 balls, while Strauss looked in similarly good touch on his way to an undefeated 24 as New Zealand's bowlers failed to match the impact made by England's.

After the Brendon McCullum inspired fireworks of the first day, when the New Zealand wicketkeeper smashed a run-a-ball 97 that helped his team from a parlous 104-5 to 208-6, yesterday's fare was a dud by comparison.

When Jacob Oram was the first to fall after 45 minutes' play, New Zealand had added only 14 runs to their overnight score as the crowd were unexpectedly stirred from their slumbers.

Oram hung out his bat at a ball from Ryan Sidebottom that shaped away a touch and was comfortably caught at first slip by Strauss, ending a useful innings of 28 from 97 balls.

Sidebottom, having gone wicket-less on an opening day during which he was upstaged by James Anderson and Stuart Broad, was back to something like his old self as he displayed the type of form that made mincemeat of New Zealand's batsmen during the winter.

The former Yorkshire pace bowler, who captured 24 wickets during that three-match series at 17.08, showed why Sir Richard Hadlee marked him down as the biggest threat to the tourists going into the re-match, even if that statement was one of the blindingly obvious.

"I was a bit disappointed with my bowling yesterday," Sidebottom said. "I wasn't hitting my straps so I looked at a few videos to get it right. I worked on it this morning and today I used my arms better to get my front arm in the right place.

"I think yesterday, because it was my first game for England for five or six weeks, I was maybe trying a bit too hard.

"So it was good to go away last night and think about it. You are always going to have bad days but being a bowler you have plenty of chances to put it right."

Sidebottom bowled with guile and accuracy from the Nursery End and struck for a second time when Kyle Mills was bowled all ends up just before lunch with the second new ball.

The Nottinghamshire seamer inflicted further damage after the break when Tim Southee was comprehensively bowled by a delivery that arrowed between bat and pad and Daniel Vettori – two short of a half-century – undone by one he completely misjudged and allowed to cannon into his stumps. Sidebottom's figures for the day rather said it all: 10.1-7-5-4.

Strauss and Cook initially proceeded with caution before injecting some much-needed vim and vigour into proceedings late in the day.

Cook lashed three fours off a wayward Southee over, while Strauss was contemptuous of anything short. It was just a pity about the weather.


Display of the day

Ryan Sidebottom: He wrapped up the New Zealand innings to finish with 4-55 from 28.2 overs.



England v New Zealand

Lord's: England trail New Zealand by 209 runs with all 1st inns wkts standing.

Overnight: New Zealand 208-6 (B B McCullum 97).

New Zealand First Innings

J M How c Ambrose b Anderson 7

A J Redmond c Cook b Anderson 0

J A H Marshall c Strauss b Broad 24

L R P Taylor c Collingwood b Broad 19

B B McCullum b Panesar 97

D R Flynn b Anderson 9

J D P Oram c Strauss b Sidebottom 28

D L Vettori b Sidebottom 48

K D Mills b Sidebottom 10

T G Southee b Sidebottom 1

C S Martin not out 0

Extras b16 lb14 w1 nb3 34

Total (86.2 overs) 277

Fall: 1-2 2-18 3-41 4-76 5-104 6-203 7-222 8-258 9-260

Bowling: Sidebottom 28.2 12 55 4; Anderson 20 5 66 3; Broad 24 4 85 2; Collingwood 3 1 11 0; Panesar 11 2 30 1.

England First Innings

A J Strauss not out 24

A N Cook not out 43

Extras nb1 1

Total 0 wkts (21.3 overs) 68

To Bat: M P Vaughan, K P Pietersen, I R Bell, P D Collingwood, T R Ambrose, S C J Broad, R J Sidebottom, M S Panesar, J M Anderson.

Bowling: Martin 8.3 2 24 0; Mills 5 0 10 0; Southee 3 0 19 0; Oram 5 0 15 0.