Stephan Shemilt
BBC Sport at Lord's

"Noticeably busier at Lord's this morning, with a queue snaking all the way up St John's Wood Road. Rather incongruously for such a well-to-do area, there are a number of shisha bars for visitors to partake in. It's an odd sight to see an MCC tie having a puff on a pipe."

Moeen Ali looks like he's going to open the bowling for England this morning...

Kane Williamson, eight runs short of his century, trots out with Ross Taylor. England's fielders have their sweaters on, it looks a touch chilly out there. We're almost ready to go...

Jeremy Coney
Ex-New Zealand captain on BBC Test Match Special

"Today is the moving day. We will know at the end of it the course of the match. The fortunes of the two teams will become clear. With the pitch being so flat, England will be praying that James Anderson can swing the ball."

In case you were wondering, the five-minute bell at Lord's this morning was rung by Joanna Lumley, of Absolutely Fabulous fame. A slight shift of gears from Dickie Bird and Mark Nicholas, who did it on the first two days.

New Zealand 303-2 (42 overs) - trail by 86

Batsmen: Williamson 92*, Taylor 47*

Fall of wickets: 148-1 (Latham 59), 148-2 (Guptill 70)

Bowling figures: Anderson 16-4-46-0, Broad 16-2-42-1, Wood 13-0-60-0, Stokes 13-2-63-0, Moeen 17-3-52-1, Root 2-0-6-0

England 389: Root 98, Stokes 92

Full scorecard

Image source, PA

Michael Vaughan
Ex-England captain on BBC Test Match Special

"Moeen Ali is not Graeme Swann, but the more he is bowled at 125-0 the more England will convince him he is not Graeme Swann. Swann would never have been left until that stage. England need to show him that he is a better bowler than perhaps he is showing at the moment."

One thing everyone agrees on is that the second new ball will be crucial in this match. It's due after three overs this morning.

So far in this match, picking up wickets with the old ball has been as tricky as picking up Swedish girls with just a hopeful smile, a Berlitz phrasebook and a passing knowledge of the music of Abba. So if England don't strike with the new cherry, they'll be in deep, deep trouble. But if they can nip out some early wickets, they'll still entertain thoughts of winning this mach.

One note of caution though: if England do take an early wicket this morning, the next man in is Brendon McCullum. And the hard new ball could ping off that heavy bat of his very, very sweetly...

John M Butt: What will be higher today. The number of wickets England take or the amount of points the UK score in Eurovision?

England certainly need to be more Bucks Fizz than Jemini. We'd even settle for Gina G after yesterday.

Away, from the on-pitch action, England appear to be closing in on a new coach and, it would appear that Yorkshire's Australian leader Jason Gillespie is the man they have in mind. Yesterday, we reported that the 40-year-old, who steered Yorkshire to last year's County Championship title, has met ECB director of cricket Andrew Strauss twice and that these constituted "positive" talks.

Gillespie did reveal that he was one of several candidates in the frame for the England role, while the ECB have insisted they will not be providing running updates on the appointment process.

Image source, Getty Images

Michael Vaughan
Ex-England captain on BBC Test Match Special

"I was excited by the pace Mark Wood reached of 92mph. He has to get used to the experience of Test cricket. There was a bit of zip there from him, a bit of movement. I liked the way he varied his angle at the crease. Today will be another development for him. England have someone that, over the next two or three years, will have a decent run in the team. He realises it was a mistake with the no-ball and he just needs to get his first wicket."

England will argue it could, maybe should, have been so different.

When the pitch is flat, the batsmen are classy and the ball isn't doing much, you have to take your chances, and England didn't do that yesterday.

First, debutant Mark Wood was deprived of a debut Test wicket when he over-stepped, granting Martin Guptill a lifeline, then Ian Bell dropped Tom Latham in the slips. The opening pair went on to record a partnership of 148. Costly.

Image source, PA

Stephan Shemilt
BBC Sport at Lord's

"My knowledge of London geography is rubbish, so I had no idea that London Zoo is so near to Lord's. This morning a queue of parents and children waiting to see the animals are passed by the speed-walking of spectators on the way to HQ. There's caged beasts ready to be unleashed at the home of cricket - the second new ball and Brendon McCullum. Whichever has the better day will go a long way to deciding the course of this match."

Naturally we tend to focus on England in our commentary, but it's well worth saluting a tremendous New Zealand effort yesterday.

The Black Caps looked to be on the back foot after day one, but they produced a superb display of Test match batting on day two, full of grit and graft and also some sublime strokeplay. It was a day that underlined just why they've become so good at Test cricket over the past 18 months.

The undoubted star of the show was Kane Williamson, who progressed seamlessly to 92 not out. He is now averaging 79.14 in Test cricket since October 2013, with five centuries in that time. Plenty of sage judges, including Brendon McCullum and Alec Stewart, are saying he could be New Zealand's greatest ever batsman, and with numbers like that, who can argue?

Image source, Getty Images

Hello and welcome to live text commentary of day three of the first Test between England and New Zealand at Lord's.

The tourists will resume this morning on 303-2, just 86 runs behind England's first-innings total of 389, after dominating day two. Can England hit back this morning?

If you've ever watched Grand Designs, you'll know that ambitious rebuilding projects can be tough. For every one step forward, there are often two steps back.

You successfully convert your abandoned country manor into a state-of-the-art eco-lodge, only to find that the plumbing doesn't work. You renovate a crumbling French farmhouse, complete with day-spa and planetarium, then you realise that you've accidentally over-filled the moat.

England are undergoing a rebuilding phase of their own at the moment as they attempt to craft an imposing new unit from the ruins of one of their greatest teams. On day one they had one of those mini-triumphs as they managed to engineer a decent first innings from unpromising foundations.

Yesterday brought one of those tearful reality checks though, as New Zealand set about building their own total. Suddenly, England's sunny south-facing view was gone, cast into shadow by a huge and impenetrable brick wall.

But rebuilding demands nothing if not tenacity. And today, England must dust themselves off, pick up their tools and start all over again...