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Michael Carberry

England's Lions successfully halted New Zealand's winning momentum in the build-up to Thursday's opening Test by battling to a hard-fought draw at the Rose Bowl today.

Having beaten Essex convincingly last week, the tourists were hopeful of beating England's next best line-up to boost their preparations prior to the first Test at Lord's.

But after being set a challenging victory target of 368 off a minimum of 75 overs, New Zealand never really threatened to reach it and finished the final day on 201 for four.

The Lions had begun the final day 282 ahead on 275 for five hoping to declare on a challenging total.

They achieved their objective thanks to the aggressive strokeplay of off-spinner Graeme Swann, who hit a quickfire half-century to allow the declaration nearly an hour before lunch.

The tourists had hoped to wrap up the Lions' innings quickly this morning to keep them on course to follow up last week's victory over Essex with another important win here to keep the momentum going towards Lord's.

They were all set to do just that after claiming two early wickets with Adil Rashid falling in the second over of the morning after adding six runs to his overnight 23 when he attempted to pull a short ball from Chris Martin and edged behind.

His demise brought Hampshire opener Michael Carberry back to the crease after he had been stretchered off with cramp yesterday, which was brought on after he celebrated reaching his century on his home ground.

But Carberry could only score eight more runs before becoming New Zealand's second victim of the day when he also attempted to pull a short ball, this time from Tim Southee, and also edged behind.

With the end of the innings in sight, however, Swann took on the New Zealand attack and hammered seven fours and a six to record a quickfire half-century.

Having reached the milestone with a reverse-sweep for four off Jeetan Patel, though, he attempted to repeat the shot and was caught at backward square to prompt the declaration and leave the tourists chasing a formidable target.

Needing a solid start if they were to chase down their target, New Zealand were provided with the platform with Jamie How and Aaron Redmond sharing a 150-run opening stand.

But the loss of four wickets in 13 overs effectively ended the tourists' hopes of victory with leg-spinner Rashid enhancing his flourishing reputation by dismissing both openers.

Redmond, who hit a brilliant first innings century to ensure his Test debut at Lord's, attempted to accelerate towards the victory target after tea and mis-timed an attempted drive straight to mid-on for a superb 64.

How followed just six overs later when he advanced down the pitch to Rashid and was comfortably stumped by wicketkeeper Matt Prior to effectively end New Zealand's challenge.

Rashid claimed his third wicket when he earned an lbw decision against Ross Taylor and James Marshall fell in similar circumstances when he was beaten for pace by Hampshire's Chris Tremlett and rapped on the pads.

Even with hard-hitting wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum at the crease, who signalled his intentions by hitting Rashid for a straight six, New Zealand accepted victory was unlikely and accepted the draw with an hour's play remaining.

6:18pm Sunday 11th May 2008

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