Tea - England 174 for 4 (Pope 59*, Brook 54*) trail New Zealand 348 (Williamson 93, Phillips 58*, Carse 4-64, Bashir 4-69) by 174 runs
Harry Brook and Ollie Pope staged a spirited counterattack on a day of two distinct weather patterns at Hagley Oval, as New Zealand's morning onslaught under heavy cloud cover was thwarted as the sun returned to Christchurch.
By tea, England were still up against it on 174 for 4, exactly halfway to their opponents' 348, and with a spate of dropped catches aiding their recovery. But compared to their lunchtime nadir of 45 for 3, it was riches, thanks to a 103-run stand for the fifth wicket that had rattled along at more than five runs an over.
While the clouds were in situ, the transformation of the batting challenge had been remarkable, as New Zealand found themselves bowling in the conditions that England themselves had envisaged exploiting after winning the toss on day one.
The hot, windy weather that had greeted the first day's play was replaced in the morning by cooler, overcast conditions with a gentle breeze that proved perfect for helping the ball talk, with the degree of swing on offer being almost double that which England had managed.
And once New Zealand's first innings had been wrapped up for 348, after the addition of 29 runs in 40 minutes, the ferocity of their bowling onslaught had echoes of their astonishing 46-all-out display against India in Bengaluru last month.
Tim Southee set the tone with an impeccable first-over maiden to Zak Crawley, who soon fell lbw to Matt Henry for a 12-ball duck, but the killer blows were struck by the debutant Nathan Smith in the final over before lunch, as he extracted his fellow newbie Jacob Bethell for 10, then, critically, England's kingpin, Joe Root, also for a duck.
Bethell's maiden innings at No. 3 could scarcely have unfolded in tougher conditions. He was made to wait 13 deliveries before nudging his first run through the leg-side, and hadn't added to his score in 13 more, until the introduction of Smith allowed him to free his arms with a brace of boundaries: one off the pads, the other through backward point.
Smith, however, got the last laugh at the start of his second over - and then some. With just minutes of the session remaining, he served up a perfect seaming delivery, which angled in at the left-hander from round the wicket, then held its line as it bit and climbed into the edge.
Smith had an agonising wait while the third umpire checked for a no-ball, but with the euphoria still surging, he finished the session with an even more critical incision. Root faced down three deliveries, two of which were called as no-balls this time, but his fourth was on a wider line and nipped back off the surface, taking an under-edge into the stumps.
Ben Duckett at least resisted in his idiosyncratic fashion, bashing six fours in a 62-ball 46, but he didn't so much ride his luck, as turn it into a bucking bronco. He survived a regulation nick to Tom Latham at second slip on 23 off Henry, and got away with two further inside-edges and a spliced pull over deep third before the beanpole seamer Will O'Rourke induced a fatal top-edge to deep backward square.
At 71 for 4, England were reeling, and their predicament could have been insurmountable had Brook, in the very next over, not been badly dropped at gully by Glenn Phillips on 18. Smith was the luckless bowler, and he was denied again when Brook had reached 41, as Latham spilled his second of the innings, another bad miss at second slip.
By then, however, the sun was beginning to creep through, and England's unquenchable desire to be proactive was already clawing back some of the lost ground. Pope, at No. 6 for this Test - ostensibly because he is keeping wicket, but also as a consequence of his grim tour of Pakistan - was once again frenetic from the outset, as he took on O'Rourke's height and bounce with a series of streaky slaps over the cordon, one of which he knew very little about.
But, with Brook following suit with a startling flick for six over fine leg off Henry, England's run-rate began to creep back towards the habitual 4-an-over pace with which they have subdued so many bowling attacks in the recent past. By tea, both men had marched through to their fifties against a now 41-over-old ball - Brook with a second six over fine leg, Pope with a nudge to leg from a brisk 59 balls - with the promise of more to come - assuming the clouds stay away, of course.
The day's dramas had been telegraphed during the end of New Zealand's own innings, in the first 40 minutes of the day. Thanks to Glenn Phillips, who converted his overnight 41 to an unbeaten 58, New Zealand added a further 29 runs for their final two wickets. It was not, however, an easy stay, with Phillips' epitomising the challenge with an audible cry of "oh you weasel!" as Chris Woakes beat him with an outswinger.
Southee, at the other end, chose violence after sizing up the movement, as he cracked Woakes off his length for a first-over boundary, but he was then undone by Brydon Carse's first ball of the morning. He wound into a pull from outside off, and picked out Gus Atkinson at deep square.
Will O'Rourke proved a doughty No.11 - aided by Carse's failure to attack his stumps as he repeatedly left the ball outside off - and Phillips cashed in briefly to march to his fifth Test fifty.
He had a scare on 42 when Carse, generating a good head of steam, smacked him hard in the grille via a top-edge off the splice, and was then dropped in the same over by Root at slip, a tough diving chance to his right. But Carse eventually got his line to O'Rourke to pluck out his off stump with an outswinging yorker, and close out the innings with career-best figures of 4 for 64 in his third Test.
