kick off tomorrow at 11am UK time.

england 12 man squad: Alastair Cook (capt), Nick Compton, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Matt Prior, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, James Anderson, Tim Bresnan

looks to be a straight choice between finn and bresnan, which I expect finn to win. bres may get a chance if finn is awful in the first test but I'd expect the selectors to stick with him at his home ground. still, can't help but wonder if his drop in form is down to changing his run up to avoid the stumps. hopefully just a temporary thing.

southee is reported to be fit but there seem to be questions over whether they'll play martin or 4 seamers. martin got some tap in the last warm up so I wouldn't be surprised if they did go for an all seam attack with williamsons part-time spin to fill in. its a risk though if the sun does make an appearance the attack could end up looking very samey.

Weather set to be ok, sunny with cloudy spells with showers expected to come in over sunday and monday. doesn't look like enough to prevent a result although light may be more of a factor than rain. anyhoo, lords has been a results ground in recent years largely down to cloud cover and swing, hence a fair bit of navel gazing in the press from england's bowlers as to why they didn't swing it in NZ, something thats usually a strength.

win the toss and bat would be my guess as thursday looks to have the best weather based on the current forecast.

odds according to betfair show NZ to be very good value at 11 to 1, it isn't going to be that easy.

No Bopara?

Black Craps by an innings.

Do you lads reckon Morgan will get another test shot? Has his game come on at all?

There's so many good young batsman coming through he'd be lucky to get another crack. Pietersen is still to come back and then you have James Taylor, Lyth, Buttler following on behind Root and Bairstow. You'd have to think he'd need some seriously big scores to get another shot.

probably come and gone. as we see here he's behind bairstow, who himself wouldn't be playing if KP was fit. He's in the mix after that though alongside taylor and perhaps ahead of bopara (phew) and patel.

So New Zealand??

Fulton, Rutherford, Williamson, Taylor, Brownlie, Watling, McCullum, Bracewell, Southee, Boult, Wagner

On paper that is actually a pretty decent side....solid middle order with Rutherford or Fulton to possibly get good starts. Rutherford might struggle with the swing though due to his lack of footwork. Not bad on the bowling front with Boult, Bracewell and Southee all capable of swinging it....Wagner will add some good aggression.

at 11-1 you'd think its worth a tenner on the craps coming through....

With the current weather, I take it the odds on a draw are something like 33/1 on? Although the English seamers can be difficult to face under these conditions if the rain eases off for a while.

They're a good side, one or two players away from being a very good side. Their bowlers will enjoy the conditions and you would imagine their batsmen will be more used to the swinging/seaming ball than cricketers from other test nations.

Takes a decent outfit to bowled out for less than 50.

Too early to pray for rain?

steady start, 37 for 0 after the first hour. good toss to win I reckon, today looks like the best day to bat.

nope, around 2 to 1. bad light is more likely to be a factor than rain as its just showers expected and lords drains quickly. its become a results ground lords so with plenty of cloud cover I expect a low scoring result myself, runs should come when the sun is out as soon as he takes his hat off though the ball ought to swing and wickets fall.

Normal transmission has resumed.

Cook is the world's premiere opening batsman so no surprises to see him doing very well. He will be looking to kick on from the magnificent form he has shown over the last year or so. Compton is not far behind in the class stakes and is in great nick.

Could be a long night. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I am off to bed so I won't have to see any of it.

Stream anyone?

Whilst the Indians are busy ruining cricket it is good to at least watch some good test cricket.

Compton goes with a shocker of a shot.

yeah, got too bogged down against martin, didn't seem to have any shots to play to pick up singles and keep the scoreboard turning. we saw something similar from him in india with his epic innings (in length) for 20 odd runs.

Another catch down. How many more for the craps this series?

Terrible shot....nice pressure by Martin.....I was one of the ones that thought maybe Bracewell was a better option...I guess this is why I'm not the selector.

it might just be 2 tests but if england can't get the scoring rate over 2 an over its going to feel like a very long test series.

How many catches have we dropped?

56 for 1 at lunch and I can't help but think we're digging a hole for ourselves here and allowing the keewees to just bowl at us. have to be a bit more positive after lunch rather than dot ball after dot ball after dot ball followed by slog.

just the 1

I think Cook will come out a lot more positive. Trott will plod away. Tbf the Kiwi's haven't actually bowled that well, England have just been very sluggish. Maybe the expected win is creating a lot more pressure than first thought.

I know NZ are not highly rated, but the poms have paid us no respect at all by selecting Geoff Boycott and Chris Tavere to open this test match.

They certainly had the upper hand against England a few months ago. I don't know if they are a good side though.

Harsh.....but fair.

How was that not out?

I'm not watching or listening but I doubt very much that was out.

Ooh. Cook owes the umpire for that one. Too close to call for DRS.

On Mars?

umpire's call on both hitting in line and hitting the stumps, stays with the onfield decision, not out.

I understand that DRS bullshit but when is it not out hitting top of middle?

When it's only clipping.

sounds like you don't understand it then. benefit of the doubt goes to the umpire, DRS has to show beyond a doubt that it was hitting due to the accepted margin of error of the system. if its a marginal call the decision stays with original call on the field as its deemed not possible to overturn it.

It wasnt just clipping.

First moral victory of the series in the bag.

no, but it wasn't hitting enough to overturn the decision, nor was it in line enough either. we seem to get this every time there's a marginal call on DRS, it isn't anything new you know.

BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!