This pair will be back in harness in the summer

Partly that can be explained by the ability of both Caddick and Gough to take wickets in busts, even if rarely simultaneously.

Caddick threatened to repeat his feat of claiming four West Indian wickets in an over two years ago when he bowled a triple-wicket maiden against New Zealand in Wellington.

And his spell during the opening hour of the Auckland Test was a classic.

Seeing extravagant movement, he pitched the ball up and bowled both opening batsman - one left-handed, the other right-handed - with balls that went through the gate.

And with Nathan Astle edging a lifter to a sprawling Graham Thorpe at third slip, the Kiwis, having chosen to bat first, found themselves 19 for four.

More to the point, Caddick, who had taken six-wicket hauls in the second innings of the first Test and the first innings of the second, was sitting on figures of three for 11.

Wasteful

That England were largely unable to maintain that pressure was mostly down to the wastefulness of Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff.

It was noticeable, however, that when Caddick trapped Craig McMillan leg-before in the last over before lunch, competing his 200th Test dismissal , Hoggard and Flintoff reserved a special pat of congratulations for their seam- bowling partner.

Though the statistics indicate that they hunt in a pack, Caddick has too often in the past lived in the shadow of Gough, partly because of Gough's superior record against the Australia.

Though there is little to choose between their career strike rates (57 for Caddick, 50 for Gough) the figures change alarmingly in Ashes contests where Gough's wickets every 53 balls is streets ahead of Caddick's 70.

By next winter's Ashes series, however, those statistics could well be reversed.