It is tempting to say that the weather saved England from defeat in the third Test, but by the time rain swept viciously down from the Pennines to force an abandonment they were making a pretty good fist of doing it themselves.

Not a single wicket did they lose in the 75 minutes' play that was possible after downpours during the night and early morning had prevented a start until 2.0 p.m.

Alec Stewart, who had played enterprisingly on the previous evening, continued in that vein and reached 83. Graham Thorpe, who had not faced a ball on Sunday evening after Mike Atherton's unfortunate dismissal, made 25 and the pair compiled a partnership of 63 for the third wicket.

By the end the New Zealand attack's lack of depth had been exposed by a pitch which, far from becoming the monster everyone had predicted - not least the groundsman - was a benign soul. A blustery and wholehearted nor'wester ripped in from the city and meant that the two main strike bowlers, Chris Cairns and Dion Nash, would have been restricted to that end alone, leaving Daniel Vettori with his leftarm spin to wheel away into its teeth.

It was inadequate: Vettori changed from over the wicket to around and back again, threw the ball high, fizzed it lower and drifted it on the wind, but he created few problems. At the other end Chris Harris trundled down some slow-medium overs at the start. Why he was preferred to a fast bowler no one could work out. He then handed over to Cairns, whose battle plan seemed to be to entice the batsmen into miscuing a pull shot. Nash failed to get a sniff of the ball.

Even given full, uninterrupted cricket throughout their second innings it looked as if it would have taken a monumental effort to bowl England out a second time. But how much satisfaction, if any at all, can England take out of this match and its outcome?

They were thoroughly outplayed until their second innings began on Sunday afternoon but hindsight now shows that in part that was down to the unpredictable condition of the pitch on the first day; far from being dry it turned out to have dampness which in turn led to some greenness and uneven bounce. From that day onwards batting got easier as the surface lost any pace it had.

Under the circumstances both sides were a front-line bowler short: England a seamer and New Zealand either a seamer or a spinner. For the final Test at the Oval Geoff Allott presumably will return to rectify the situation for the tourists.

England's batting nonetheless failed to operate as a unit and the dilemma the selectors now face when they meet on Saturday to choose the side for next week's final Test is threefold: whether these are indeed the best batsmen and must be persevered with despite the consistent failure to post a substantial first-innings score; whether then they should be retained en bloc but perhaps shuffled around; and whether there is little to lose and much to gain in introducing new faces and a new balance sooner rather than later.

The recent record of these selectors suggests that performances in this game have probably been sufficient to spare some blushes at least. Stewart looks safe; Atherton was gritty in the first innings and progressing nicely in the second until his unfortunate dismissal; Mark Ramprakash will probably stay more for the determination in scoring his runs than the way he scored them; and Thorpe did enough although he should no longer regard his position as bomb-proof. The captain Nasser Hussain, of course, will return if fit.

On the other hand nothing was learned of Graeme Hick that was not known before. With the pitch as it had become he might well have scored heavily given the chance, but the inexplicable manner in which he made such a mess of the full toss that brought his dismissal in the first innings needs examination.

Most vulnerable is Mark Butcher, who found international captaincy a chastening experience and batting even worse. Like Atherton and probably Hick he received a poor decision, but he is not playing well. The chance would be there for Stewart to resume opening with Atherton, leaving Butcher in the unusual - but not unique - situation of being captain one match and out of the side the next.