Daniel Vettori at Lord’s on Sunday

London: New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori led a spirited fightback on Sunday with three cheap wickets on the fourth day of the first test against England at the Lord's.

At tea, England, who resumed the day at 89 for no loss in reply to the Black Cap’s 277 after 153.2 overs had been lost to rain and bad light, were 239 for six.

Vettori, who had contributed a characteristic gritty 48 from nearly three hours at the crease in the Kiwi innings, bagged the wickets of Kevin Pietersen (3), Paul Collingwood (6) and Tim Ambrose (0).

Collingwood and Ambrose fell to the first two deliveries of the New Zealand skipper’s 10th over and the hattrick ball just eluded Stuart Broad's groping bat.

The slow left-armer did not bowl on either Friday nor on Saturday after having two stitches removed from a split on his spinning finger shortly before the game.

England skipper, Michael Vaughan stood firm among the ruins while the middle-order crumbled around him, playing some glorious strokes through the leg-side to reach his 19th test half-century.

Vaughan, who said before the match, that he badly needed runs after an indifferent series in New Zealand this year, had taken his total to 61 aided with seven fours at the interval while Broad was on 10.

In the morning session, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook completed their first test century opening partnership.

They had to work hard for their runs against some disciplined and intelligent bowling from Chris Martin, who extracted movement off the seam from the Nursery End.

Martin squared Cook up with a delivery coming into the left-hander from around the wicket which nipped away for wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum to take a tumbling catch in front of first slip. Cook had contributed 61 to the first wicket partnership of 121.

Strauss reached his 12th test half-century before he was lbw to Jacob Oram for 63 and Vettori, bowling for the first time in the match, secured the important wicket of Kevin Pietersen lbw pushing forward. (Reuters)