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It was yet another rain-affected day's play in the ongoing N-Power Test Series between England and New Zealand. The opening day's play of the second test at Old Trafford saw just the 54 overs of play in which the visitors made 202 for 4.

Electing to bat first after winning the toss, the Kiwis were off to a solid opening start. Fortunately for the homeside, left arm swing bowler Ryan Sudebottom pulled things back just before the lunch break. The Kiwis from a position of strength of 80/0 got reduced to 92/2 in the first session. Opener Aaron Redmond, playing his 2nd Test couldn't kick onto convert his start into a bigger one and fell in the 24th over after making 28. Sidebottom who took this wicket followed up with an inswinger that trapped James Marshall plum in front for a duck.

The afternoon session and the final session saw rain interruptions. Amidst that the young exciting strokemaker Ross Taylor got going to move the scoreboard forward. This was after opener Jamie How had to cut short his good innings to 64 (from 110 balls with 7 fours) because of a great delivery from Jimmy Anderson. Taylor's aggressive knock came in handy as the Kiwis had lost the big wicket of the inform Brendon McCullum cheaply. McCullum failed to keep his calm and as a result could make just 11 before edging a Monty Panesar delivery.

New Zealand found themselves in trouble at 123 for 4 and were further dented with the injury to their no.6 batsman Daniel Flynn. The left handed Flynn got hit on the face by a deadly bouncer from Anderson and had to retire hurt on a personal score of 4. That blow didn't bother first Test centurion Jacob Oram (22*) as he combined nicely with Ross Taylor (67* from 75 balls with 8 fours and a six) to take NZ safely to 202/4 before bad light had the final say.

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