Stephen Fleming was a relieved man after New Zealand overcame an England-style collapse to take an early lead in the five-match series. After losing five games in a row, Fleming described the result as "massively important." "It was vital we started off well," said Fleming, "because when you taste defeat for a couple of games you start to get edgy. It meant a lot to us." But he was worried by the latest in a long line of middle-order slumps. "That's three or four games we've had these clumps of wickets," he said. "It's annoying and it's also devastating, because we're going to lose more games than we're going to win. We got through tonight, but that trend has got to break if we're going to be more successful."

Asked whether Andre Adams, who biffed an unbeaten 28 off 23 balls, was under instructions to play his normal game, Fleming replied, "Yep, he's a free spirit. He's got very good hand-eye. He can turn the game quite quickly. There were two courses of action. One was to try and limp through, the other was to be positive. The positive one won today."

New Zealand's fielding pleased Fleming too. "There was some tremendous stuff," he said, "although we missed some things early on. It was almost an innings of two halves. It took some nerves to settle down into the match before we started responding." Ominously for England, he added: "We'll create chances throughout this series, I have no doubt."

Nick Knight had been dropped off consecutive balls from Chris Cairns, and the second of those chances fell to wicketkeeper Chris Nevin. "I had some making up to do," admitted Nevin, who was preferred behind the stumps to Adam Parore and went on to make 55 out of a first-wicket partnership of 99 with Nathan Astle. "I was more nervous today than when I made my debut."

Inevitably, perhaps, the Steve Waugh question came up. "It's massive news," said Fleming, who in effect cost Waugh his job by leading New Zealand to three wins out of four over Australia in the recent VB Series. There was a pause, before he added sotto voce, "He'll be back." It's hard to imagine otherwise.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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