England lost captain Alastair Cook in the first hour after being put in at the start of the second Test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve. Cook, a little embarrassed perhaps to be described by his opposite number Brendon McCullum as a "genius" batsman second only to Don Bradman in the build-up to this clash, was unable to live up to that hype. He could muster only 17 before falling in strange circumstances to first-change Neil Wagner, and it therefore fell to Nick Compton and number three Jonathan Trott to take England to 44 for one halfway through the first session. Cook and Compton appeared untroubled for almost threequarters-of-an-hour until the England captain unaccountably pushed a length ball from Wagner straight into the hands of mid-on at the start of the left-armer's second over. There had been good carry with the new ball for Tim Southee and Trent Boult, but a suspicion of unpredictable pace in the surface as Cook departed with a long look at the pitch after his curious dismissal. Compton responded with a one-two demonstration of his two favourite shots in the same Wagner over, however. First, he had ample time to climb into his second pulled four of a sunny morning; then two balls later, it was the Compton extra-cover drive which brought him another boundary. His and Trott's first job was to try to keep the Kiwis at bay till lunch, and make sure there would be no first-innings collapse here to match the one that put England in such trouble before they fought back to draw last week's rain-shortened first Test in Dunedin. | 
