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The last time New Zealand beat England in this country was at Trent Bridge in 1986, when their team were sufficiently strong to win not only that series but also two against Australia, home and away, the previous winter. That is one reason to counsel against undue native optimism when the second Test of the summer begins this morning, with England one up. One fine day New Zealand are going to win a Test match at Lord's.

Of all the established Test-playing nations, they are the only one never to have won at the home of cricket, so the current group of players do not lack opportunity. England have won five of the 12 matches on the ground between the teams, though the last three have ended in draws, most recently in 1994, when Dion Nash did his utmost to tilt things towards the tourists with 11 wickets.

Nash, who also made a half-century in that game, which England saved on the last afternoon with some dogged batting, will have to bowl no less valiantly this time to compensate for the loss of the injured Simon Doull. His place goes to a batsman, Matthew Bell, who has turned up few trees on this tour. Bell will go in first with Matthew Horne, and Roger Twose will drop down the order.

From England's viewpoint the Test match five years ago was memorable for two things. Paul Taylor, the Northamptonshire left arm swinger, won his only cap in this country, and came on as the fourth change bowler in New Zealand's second innings, to his evident surprise. Less mysteriously, Alec Stewart made a hundred.

The memory of that century will enable Stewart to keep his eyes on the ball when he goes out to open the innings. He is the only England player from that match to retain his place and it goes without saying that another failure will leave him vulnerable to the challenge of Michael Vaughan and Darren Maddy. He knows, and so does everybody else, that he must make runs here to remain a Test cricketer.

Nasser Hussain, who succeeded him as captain last month, did not try to play down the significance of this match for Stewart. Nor, sensibly, did he play it up. Publicly he remains supportive, pointing out that the honours board in the home dressing-room has two entries against Stewart's name: 113 not out v Sri Lanka in 1991, his maiden Test hundred, and 119 v New Zealand five years ago.

``Alec has played well for England over the years,'' Hussain said, ``and we're all fully behind him. It wouldn't be surprising if you lot were writing about another Stewart hundred in this match. But this is an important game for everybody, not just Stewart. We've got the chance to show people that Edgbaston wasn't a one-off.''

Hussain would not be drawn on England's recent record at Lord's, which is quite appalling. Perhaps it was because he can't quite bring himself to believe it. This decade they have beaten India in 1990, when Graham Gooch made 333; Sri Lanka a year later; and four years ago, West Indies, when Dominic Cork took seven for 43 on his debut.

In the same period the South Africans have won twice, handsomely, and so have Pakistan. Australia would surely have done so, had poor weather not acted as England's 12th man two years ago. For some reason, which England are either unable or unwilling to confront, visiting players raise their game for Lord's while England's feel intimidated. Though he balked at the idea of a 'hoodoo', Hussain could not find a more appropriate word to describe this peculiar trend. Instead, he stressed how important it was for his players to enjoy the experience. ``I'll feel very proud leading the boys out at Lord's. It's just as special for us as it is for any touring side. The game is important, not the venue.''

That last remark was a reference to the events at Edgbaston when England won by seven wickets after conceding a first innings lead of 100 and then bowling out New Zealand for 106. The bizarre nature of the game was reflected in the glowing batting of Alex Tudor, who was selected for his first Test in this country as a fast bowler and ended up one frustrating run short of a maiden hundred.

In the absence of Darren Gough, Tudor will again bowl behind Alan Mullally and Andrew Caddick in an unchanged team, with Phil Tufnell offering the option of spin on the ground he knows best. The pitch, slap-bang in the middle of the square, impressed Hussain as ``a good surface, with the odd crack''.

Less satisfactorily, the boundary square of the wicket is 10 yards in and, at the Nursery End, the ropes have been pushed in fully 20 yards to accommodate advertising boards. On a ground like Lord's, which is not particularly big, this is absurd. Perhaps batsmen should not be awarded six for strokes that cross the ropes but, as happens at Malvern College, they should be given four instead.

The first three days are sold out, which has little to do with that win at Edgbaston.Rather, it reflects the time-honoured appeal of the Lord's Test, which is one of the most alluring occasions of the English summer. England, understandably, are taking a hard-nosed view of things. They want to win and, barring accidents, they should do so. But, today especially, they should proceed with care.

England: *N Hussain, A J Stewart, M A Butcher, G P Thorpe, M R Ramprakash, A Habib, -C M W Read, A J Tudor, A R Caddick, P C R Tufnell, A D Mullally.

New Zealand: *S P Fleming, M J Horne, M D Bell, R G Twose, N J Astle, C D McMillan, C L Cairns, -A C Parore, D J Nash, D L Vettori, G I Allott.