England Lions attempted to press on towards a winning lead at the Rose Bowl today as they sought to undermine New Zealand's preparations for next week's opening Test.

Having taken nearly an hour to end the tourists' stubborn last wicket stand between opener Aaron Redmond and Chris Martin to gain a seven-run first innings lead, the Lions advanced to a 55-run advantage by reaching 48 for one at lunch on the third day.

Captain Rob Key was the driving force behind a 48-run opening stand with Michael Carberry, hitting five boundaries in his 30 before falling to all-rounder Jacob Oram just one over before lunch.

His positive strokeplay followed frustration at the start of the day for the Lions as they struggled to break New Zealand's resistance when they resumed 19 runs adrift on 261 for nine.

The Lions were expecting to wrap up New Zealand's innings quickly with Martin, one of the least effective tail-enders in world cricket, at one end.

But Martin resisted England's efforts for 45 minutes as New Zealand crawled slowly towards parity with Redmond growing in confidence in his partner to such an extent he stopped shielding him from the strike.

England appeared set on a policy of short-pitched bowling which both the New Zealand batsmen handled without much trouble, although the partnership should have ended several overs earlier.

Redmond had added only one run to his overnight 139 when he attempted an upper cut to a short delivery from Durham seamer Graham Onions and was missed in the gully by Adil Rashid.

The New Zealand opener added a further six runs to his total before Onions gained some consolation for that miss by winning an lbw appeal to end the innings in the 10th over of the morning.

Key drove the Lions forward when they began their reply with a succession of boundaries, but fell lbw to Oram just as lunch approached.

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