James Anderson swings Trent Bridge Test England's way

James Anderson produced a sublime spell of swing bowling to take six wickets and rip through New Zealand's batting line-up, leaving the tourists struggling to avoid the follow-on in reply to England's first-innings total of 364 in the Third Test at Trent Bridge.

If Anderson has been frustratingly inconsistent at times, he was at his brilliant best at Trent Bridge, producing a series of classic outswingers to leave the tourists' top-order in disarray. Anderson's 6-42, his career-best Test figures, left New Zealand mightily relieved to accept the umpires' offer of bad light shortly after 5pm and play was later abandoned for the day. But at 96-6 Daniel Vettori's side, already 1-0 down in this three-match series, still need another 69 runs to avoid a follow-on that England would surely enforce if the bowler-friendly cloud cover persists on Saturday.

It was certainly a day to remember for Anderson, the Lancashire seamer, who is far from a fixture in the England side. Earlier he had made his highest Test score with 28, sharing a eighth-wicket partnership of 76 with Stuart Broad, who hit his maiden Test fifty as England's lower order showed admirable resistance in extending their overnight score of 273-7 well past 300, the minimum target they would have set themselves at start of play.