Jamie Smith helped England recover from a middle-order collapse as they set New Zealand 254 to win the first test at Lord's on Friday.
England were dismissed for 226 in their second innings on the second day of a frenetic clash in north London.
New Zealand's Nathan Smith took 6-70, the second five-wicket haul of the paceman's six-match test career.
But given New Zealand were dismissed for just 113 in the first innings, they need a vastly-improved batting effort to avoid falling 1-0 behind in the three-match series.
Debutant opener Emilio Gay was England's top-scorer in their second innings with 57 and wicketkeeper Smith made 39.
Earlier, England lost four wickets for just one run as 126-2 quickly became 127-6 before Smith steadied the ship in the 150th test at Lord's – the most of any ground.
Smith received good support from Gus Atkinson during a seventh-wicket stand of 57.
But Atkinson gave his innings away on 14 when his miscued pull off Kyle Jamieson was caught by the towering fast bowler.
This is England's first test since a 4-1 series loss in Australia where they squandered several promising positions.
And it looked like they might be suffering a repeat of their Ashes debacle when Harry Brook, fresh from a first-innings fifty, and England captain Ben Stokes were both dismissed without scoring on Friday.
There was little Jamie Smith could do when Nathan Smith bowled him with a delivery that kept low to end a 52-ball innings including six fours.
England were 99-2 when Jacob Bethell was bowled by a Matt Henry delivery that kept low.
Gay, however, was still seeking to punish New Zealand for failing to review a rejected Henry lbw appeal when the Durham batsman would have been out for 24.
Gay pressed on to an 84-ball fifty, including seven fours, before he was caught behind off Smith to leave England 126-3.
Brook was trapped in front by Will O'Rourke for a duck and Joe Root fell in similar fashion to Smith for eight.
Stokes was bowled by an excellent Smith delivery that angled in before clipping the top of the left-hander's off stump.
Ollie Robinson made a useful 29 before he holed out off Nathan Smith to end the innings.
Earlier, Robinson celebrated a five-wicket haul on his return to England duty.
The Sussex pace bowler, playing his first test in more than two years, produced a triple-wicket maiden on Thursday during a sensational return of 4-10 in six overs as New Zealand slumped to 61-6 at stumps.
He wrapped up the innings on Friday by bowling last man Henry for a duck to leave New Zealand 27 runs behind England's first-innings 140 all out.
Robinson finished with his test-best figures of 5-39 in 10.1 overs.
ENGLAND: Emilio Gay, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Jamie Smith (wkt), Gus Atkinson, Ollie Robinson, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
NEW ZEALAND: Tom Latham (capt), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wkt), Glenn Phillips, Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Will O'Rourke