England Lions made steady progress towards a major lead at the Rose Bowl today as they attempted to disrupt New Zealand's preparations for the opening Test.

Having finally dismissed the tourists for 273 to gain a seven-run first innings advantage, the Lions were intent on building a big enough lead to put pressure on New Zealand on the final day.

They remained on course for that objective with the tourists, who are playing their final warm-up match before the opening Test at Lord's on Thursday, struggling to make any inroads as the Lions reached 131 for two at tea on the third day.

Denied the services of seamer Iain O'Brien, who suffered a calf strain earlier in the match, they took only one wicket throughout the afternoon session having been forced to use the part-time medium pace of James Marshall and part-time leg-spin of Aaron Redmond.

The Lions had been expected to wrap up New Zealand's innings quickly at the start of the day when they resumed 19 runs adrift on 261 for nine with Chris Martin, one of the least effective tail-enders in world cricket, at the crease.

But Martin resisted England's efforts for 45 minutes as New Zealand crawled slowly towards parity with opener Redmond, who had resumed on 139, 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.

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

But opener Michael Carberry delivered a determined half-century and forged a useful 67-run stand with Owais Shah, whose own hopes of playing a major innings were ended when Martin trapped him lbw for 43.

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