History-maker Kane Williamson extends New Zealand advantage before rain hands England a sliver of hope

England’s spectacular collapse to 58 all out on day one of this opening day-night Test against New Zealand dominated the back pages, but it was the visit of Barack Obama to Auckland that was splashed across the front of every newspaper here.

And while Joe Root and players were confined to their Eden Park dressing-room for all but 23.1 overs of this rain-hit second day, they could have done worse than read the former US president’s seminal book, The Audacity of Hope.

Given New Zealand, on 229 for four at stumps, hold a first-innings lead of 171 with three days of this match remaining, hope is about all England have got right now. And that’s only because of a weather forecast that is predicting rain for much of the next two days.

Despite the limited amount of play possible, there was time on this second day for Kane Williamson, on 91 overnight, to knock off the nine runs he required to reach a New Zealand-record 18th Test century.

Williamson passed team-mate Ross Taylor and the great Martin Crowe on his country’s all-time list before he was trapped lbw on 102 by James Anderson.

That wicket was the sole highlight of the day for England other than a visit into their dressing-room from pop superstar Ed Sheeran, who is in Auckland on the latest leg of his world tour. Sheeran was handed a bat by fast bowler Mark Wood as he chatted with the players during the first rain break today.

Those with a cruel sense of humour might suggest the singer-songwriter would be in with a realistic chance of making the squad for next week’s second Test in Christchurch if it wasn’t for his prior commitments.

Instead, England are stuck with this group of players until the end of the tour and regardless of the series result, there will be calls for changes come the summer after their batting horror show on the first day here.

Whatever the solution to this team’s current malaise – this will be the 12th successive Test they have failed to win away from home – the easiest way to turn things around would be for Root to start leading from the front with the bat on a more consistent basis.

This contribution from Williamson, who has five more Test hundreds than his opposite number from two fewer matches, drove home that feeling.

Indeed, England really need Root to step up and follow the lead of not only Williamson but also Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, the respective captains of India and Australia who both piled on the runs to lead their teams to 4-0 series wins against England in the past two winters.

For Anderson, the belief is still there that this Test can be saved.

“Yes, we have to keep believing we can save it because if we don’t have belief there’s no point turning up and putting in the hard yards and bowling the overs in the middle,” he said. “We’ve got to believe that we can get something out of this game.”

There is still shock, though, at how his team capitulated on the first day. “It happens sometimes and it happened yesterday,” said Anderson. “Hopefully it won’t happen for a long time because it’s very disappointing, especially when we started this tour trying to learn from the Ashes defeat and improve as a team. To start the series like this was bitterly disappointing.”

Anderson, playing in his 135th Test, added: “I can’t remember experiencing an hour like that before. Certainly, at the start of the game. We’ve got to try and work very hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”