England captain Michael Vaughan fought a gripping personal duel with his opposite number Daniel Vettori on Sunday while steering his team to a 42-run first innings lead on the fourth day of the first Test at Lord's.
Vaughan scored 106, his 18th Test century, his sixth at Lord's and his first against the Kiwis, with some delightful shots around the wicket in his team's 319 all out.
Vettori, who had reduced England to 208 for six with three cheap wickets, finished with five for 69, including the wicket of Vaughan for 106.
It was his first five-wicket haul against England, his 14th overall, and took his Test tally to exactly 250.
At the close of the first full day's play in the match, New Zealand had reduced the deficit to two when they reached 40 for no wicket in their second innings.
Aaron Redmond, who made a duck on debut in the first innings, was dropped on 10 by wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose, a difficult chance diving to his left, off Stuart Broad.
Andrew Strauss (63) and Alastair Cook (61), resuming at 89 for no wicket after 153.2 overs had been lost to rain and bad light on the first three days, recorded their first century opening partnership for England.
Their departures were the signal for left-arm spinner Vettori to make his mark on the match, bowling for the first time after having two stitches to a split on his bowling finger removed before the match.
Vettori accounted for the dangerous Kevin Pietersen, lbw for three, then removed Paul Collingwood (6) and Ambrose (0) from consecutive balls in his 10th over.
Broad narrowly avoided edging the hat-trick ball and survived some anxious moments to add 61 runs for the seventh wicket with Vaughan before he was bowled off his pads by Jacob Oram for 25.
VAUGHAN ATTACKS
Vaughan, who averaged only 22.53 against the Kiwis compared to a career figure of 42.47 before the match, drove sweetly through the on-side and greeted Vettori's return after tea with consecutive fours through mid-off and over mid-on.
He cut Vettori to the third-man boundary for four and late-cut another three off the spinner who up to that time had been treated with the utmost respect by the England batsmen.
Vaughan reached his century by flicking Vettori through mid-wicket for his 11th boundary to equal former England captain Graham Gooch's record for Test centuries at Lord's.
He was finally out with last man James Anderson at the crease, caught on the mid-wicket boundary by James Marshall trying to hit another boundary.
Vaughan gave only one chance on 64 when Redmond at second slip was unable to hold on to a difficult chance low to his right hand off paceman Tim Southee.
"I was very disciplined with the first 30," Vaughan told a news conference. "From there on I felt there was a hundred for the making if I didn't make a mistake -- and I didn't make a mistake."
He paid tribute to Vettori saying New Zealand had a "guy who varies his pace better than anybody in the world".
Vettori said he felt New Zealand had dominated the day until Vaughan and Broad had come together.
"I think we acknowledge that he [Vaughan] is a very good cricketer," he said.
Asked how he felt about getting on the honours' board for his five wickets, Vettori replied: "It's a nice feeling but I think I will enjoy it more when we bat through the first session."
