WELLINGTON, March 24: Marcus Trescothick played his best innings of the tour Sunday to put England firmly in control of the second Test against New Zealand.

At the close of the fourth day England were 184 for one, an overall lead of 246 with nine second innings wickets in hand on a pitch likely to offer plenty of assistance to their left-arm spinner Ashley Giles.

Trescothick was on 77, his 10th Test half-century, while Mark Butcher had scored 57.

New Zealand, who had realistic hopes at the start of the day of pushing for the win which would have squared the three-Test series, collapsed from 70 for one to 218 all out with Andy Caddick taking six for 59.

Giles took four for 102 then the bowlers put their feet up as England went a long way to batting the home side out of the match.

Trescothick has struggled on tour, with his highest score being 41 in England’s victorious third One-day International in Napier. But on Sunday he dominated the New Zealand attack and helped nail the coffin shut on New Zealand’s chances.

A belligerent batsman who punishes anything short or full. Trescothick cashed in as the New Zealand bowlers struggled on the benign pitch.

Only left-hand spinner Daniel Vettori looked likely to get wickets, though Trescothick was lucky umpire Steve Dunne may have been a little hard of hearing as television showed Adam Parore had caught him off Nathan Astle in the last over of the day.

Butcher also benefited from Dunne’s off day when he looked to have got a tickle to a Craig McMillan delivery soon after he hit his 50.

Trescothick and Michael Vaughan put on 79 for the first wicket before Vaughan was well caught by Chris Drum backward of square off Vettori.

Earlier New Zealand squandered a sound start to the day from Mark Richardson (60) and Lou Vincent (57).

A desire to score at a quick pace to give themselves a better chance of getting a lead over England in good time proved their downfall.

The England bowlers kept a vice-like grip on the scoring with some excellent line and length, but when the bit was loosened things went awry for the New Zealanders.

Three batsmen perished trying to push the score. Vincent went attempting a rash sweep off Giles, Stephen Fleming scored only three before he blasted a short ball from Andy Caddick into Graham Thorpe’s midriff and Vettori (11) did the same with the ball before lunch just after driving Caddick to the cover boundary.

The other victims in the morning session when New Zealand went from 135 for one to 178 for seven at the break, were more intent on survival as Caddick and Giles bowled superbly.

Nathan Astle came down to earth after his record-breaking 222 in the Christchurch Test when he scored just four, while Adam Parore continued a nightmare series with nought to go with nought and one in Christchurch.

Craig McMillan hit an enterprising 41 as the long New Zealand tail tried to make amends but the home side still lost their last nine wickets for just 83 runs.