In his fourth over he saw Marcus Trescothick pull a ball over wide mid on for a boundary but then put a little more into the next ball and as Trescothick swept, the ball arrived too quickly and flew high to square leg where Lou Vincent ran around to take the catch.

That left England 63/2 after Trescothick had provided much of the early impetus for the side.

Fleming responded immediately by calling back faster bowler Ian Butler. However, incoming batsman Nasser Hussain looked to get after him quickly at one stage rocking onto the back foot to pull a ball to mid-wicket for two runs.

He bowled only two overs before Chris Drum was brought in from the Vance Stand end for the first time.

At the second drinks break with the light falling fast, England were 81/2. Mark Butcher was 18 and Hussain 11.

From his first overs Butler generated much more pace than was ever evident at Jade Stadium and bowled several balls in the 140km/h area. Unfortunately, he also ran into no-balling problems and that minimised his efficiency and Fleming took him off after the four overs of his first spell had cost 17 runs, five of them from no balls.

Chris Drum managed to find slight swing and it was a ball that moved just enough to defeat Michael Vaughan that gave New Zealand their first wicket. Vaughan followed the ball and edged to first slip where Fleming held his 96th Test catch. Vaughan was out for seven and England were 26/1.

Trescothick by comparison was much more settled after getting a couple of streaky boundaries past the slips cordon to get the scoring underway.

But he was quick to get on the front foot to anything pitched up and slightly wide, especially through the off-side from Drum and Martin. Two punishing cover drives signalled his intent and hinted at the accuracy the bowlers would require.

Martin several times beat the edge of the bat of both Trescothick and Mark Butcher, who took his place in the side despite a painful cracked thumb suffered in the first Test.

Fleming claimed before the series started that one of Martin's attributes was his ability to bowl to left-handers and he showed why during his first spell.

He bowled his first six overs at a cost of 18 runs.

He won his second toss of the series and for the second time he put England in to bat. It should be an interesting exercise given the lack of experience in the New Zealand attack with Chris Martin coming into the side in place of Chris Cairns.

Daryl Tuffey and Chris Harris were left out of the New Zealand XI.

Conditions are fine and warm with a light northerly breeze and the umpires have decided there will be 45 overs of play in one three hour session.

England will field an unchanged side in the Test.

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Mark Richardson, Matthew Horne, Lou Vincent, Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Adam Parore, Daniel Vettori, Chris Drum, Ian Butler, Chris Martin.

England: Nasser Hussain (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher, Michael Vaughan, Graham Thorpe, Mark Ramprakash, Andrew Flintoff, James Foster, Ashley Giles, Andrew Caddick, Matthew Hoggard.

The umpires are: Steve Dunne (New Zealand), Darrell Hair (Australia). Third umpire is Evan Watkin.

Play in the second National Bank Test will start at 3.30pm today. It will be one three-hour session and there will be 45 overs bowled.

Chris Harris and Daryl Tuffey have been left out of the New Zealand team for the match meaning Chris Martin has come into the side in place of Chris Cairns.

Conditions in Wellington are fine and warm, and the drying processes have done their job. Anything other than a start today would have probably started a riot as a sizeable crowd has built up in expectation of a start being made.

Both teams are in the middle going through their warm-up routines. The pitch has a green covering in parts but there are also some bare patches.

While the day has dawned fine and with a drying breeze, saturation of areas of the pitch block mean there will be a delay to the start of play on the scheduled second day of the second National Bank Series Test match.

The first day was abandoned yesterday without a ball being bowled.

Strong winds and heavy rain overnight did nothing to improve the situation, but the continual ease with which wet weather disrupts match preparations here is becoming an embarrassment.

Wellington has always been frustrated because the strong winds that can blow here make raised covers a liability, they are likely to be blown away. But the on-the-ground type covers are also hindered by the west-east camber of the ground which means there is a natural run-off across the wicket, especially when rain is mixed with strong winds.

Teams are not returning to the ground until 12 noon. The best case scenario has play starting after lunch, the worst case is there will be no play until tea.

The one positive factor about the day is the weather is expected to continue to improve over the remainder of the duration of the Test.