New Zealand 355 & 195-9 Essex 258 & 200: Mason's haul paves way to victory for Black Caps

New Zealand's cricketing history is not laced with flair players, inspirational performances and glitzy fanfares. Success has been built on rather less sexy virtues like discipline, efficiency and maximising the pool of talent available. Judging by the Black Caps' bowling display at Chelmsford yesterday, a performance that provided them with a morale-boosting victory over Essex, little is likely to change over the next seven weeks.

In Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor the tourists possess two highly-gifted and entertaining batsmen, capable of playing shots that take the breath away. New Zealand's bowling lacks such quality. In the Tests the tourists' seamers, deprived of the banned Shane Bond, will rely on the simple and old-fashioned virtues of line and length when they attempt to torment England's batsmen. The three-Test series begins at Lord's a week on Thursday.

Nobody epitomised these characteristics better yesterday than Michael Mason, a journeyman who is unlikely to play in nine days' time. Mason took three good wickets as Essex were bowled out for 200. The haul gave him match figures of 7 for 101.

Iain O'Brien, Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram gave Mason excellent support, each conceding fewer than three runs an over in the match. That kind of run-rate gives a captain reassurance and control.

Alastair Cook was one of Mason's victims when, on 57, he drove carelessly to mid-off. It was a strange dismissal for the England opener, whose career is being built around similar principles to those shown by the Back Caps. Cook's innings here was typically defiant and inelegant. He was dropped once and survived two strong, legitimate-looking appeals in a three-hour vigil.

But such alarms do not concern Cook, especially when he is in need of time at the crease. The 23-year-old has never worried about looking pretty or been perturbed by the ball consistently failing to hit the middle of his bat. All that really worries him is the number that follows his name in the scorebook, and on the majority of occasions it makes for pleasant reading.

"It was just what I needed," he said. "It could have been a lot worse had Ross Taylor caught me on nought. I am grateful for the time in the middle. You can have as many nets as you want and face as many throw-downs as possible but it is not the same as batting in the middle and I was lucky enough to spend two-and-a-half hours out there today. Every batsman wants time in the middle – it is the way you find a rhythm and fluency. Hopefully my batting is now on an upward curve.

"New Zealand bowled very well at us. They make you work hard for your runs; it is something they did very well in New Zealand earlier this year. They set quite defensive fields and they bowl one side of the wickets. They are also quite skilful in the way they swing the ball so they demand [England's] respect.

"They beat us in the one-day series and the Test series was very close so we will not be showing any complacency. South Africa in the second half of the summer may be the bigger draw as a name but these lot are a competitive outfit that give very little away."

* Shaun Tait joined up with the Australian team yesterday, three months after announcing his retirement due to depression. The fast bowler was a surprise inclusion at the training camp in Brisbane.