England victory hopes washed out

England had to settle for a draw in the second Test as forecast heavy rain washed out the final day at the Basin Reserve.

The tourists were 49 runs ahead, with New Zealand 162 for two following on, after rain also restricted play to just 35 overs on Sunday.

But there was an air of resignation by last night that this match, like the first in Dunedin last week, would end in a rain-affected stalemate.

James Anderson took the only wicket to fall on day four, Kane Williamson (55no) and Ross Taylor sharing an unbroken stand of 81, and England therefore knew then they had only a slim chance of victory - even if the rain stayed away.

Instead, the remnants of Cyclone Sandra did their worst - and although the officials took no chances, play was finally abandoned at 2pm local time. The series score remains 0-0, and the final Test in Auckland - starting on Friday - is therefore a potential decider.

Disappointed England captain Alastair Cook was satisfied his team could have done no more, in the time available to them, to try to go 1-0 up here.

"We got ourselves in a really good position to win the game," he said. "We can take a lot from that, after our first performance."

England had no realistic choice but to put the Kiwis in again - rarely the preferred option for modern Test captains but one Cook had to take, given such an ominous forecast.

Cook added: "Clearly, I don't think we really wanted to enforce the follow-on, when you've bowled 90 overs on a good wicket and put the effort in - with four bowlers - that the lads had.

"But the circumstance with the weather - we knew it was pretty accurate, when it's so close - we thought we'd have 80 overs to bowl them out. That was a chance to win the game, and our only chance really. We asked a lot of the bowlers to do that, and unfortunately didn't quite create enough chances."