The Cricket lovers in New Zealand couldn’t have asked for more. On a day when the conditions were apt for Batting, Michael Vaughan won the toss and chose to bat. Daniel Vettori must have been a worried man with a very inexperienced attack consisting of two debutants, Tim Southee and Grant Elliot.

Once into bat, England looked very miserable. At one stage, they were reduced to 4 for 3. Kevin Pietersen then got into the act. But the debutant, Southee, had done the damage. Kevin Pietersen put his head down and played a beautiful innings when wickets kept tumbling at the other end.

He finally brought up his century off 163 balls ending his drought. He hadn’t crossed 50+ in his last 10 innings before this one, his last one being against India last summer at The Oval. Another cause of worry is that there hasn’t been even a single England top-order batsman who has scored a century recently. The last one being Collingwood’s hundred against West Indies at Chester-le-Street last June.

Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad put up a fight with a stand of 61 before Pietersen fell to Southee, his third for the day. Tim Southee has backed his last month’s performance at the Under 19 World Cup where he bagged 17 wickets at a miserly average of 6.64. Even the other debutant, Grant Elliot, also picked up his maiden wicket when he caught Ian Bell off his own Bowling.

Even the other inexperienced Bowler, Jeetan Patel playing his third test, troubled the England Batsman. That must have made Daniel Vettori proud. At the end of the day, it was completely a Pietersen and Southee show. This would have satisfied the audience with the scoreboard reading 240/7 with Stuart Broad on a well-made 42.