New Zealand's Martin Guptill says the plan for the Black Caps is to bat just once in the test against England at Lord's after the team ended day two in a commanding position.

In reply to England's first innings score of 389, New Zealand were 303-2 at stumps on the second day, with the English bowlers having a frustrating day.

Guptill, who scored 70 runs before becoming a victim of Stuart Broad's bowling (and a Gary Ballance catch), said the plan for the remainder of the test is to keep piling on the runs and then bowl England out again, without the need for the Black Caps to get padded up once more.

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"At this stage it is [the plan]," Guptill said.

"We've got eight wickets in hand and we're not too far behind now.

"Hopefully we can go big, just bat the once and hopefully our bowlers can rock and roll them."

With England starting the day 354-7, it was vital that New Zealand cleaned up the tail end quickly, which they did before Guptill and his opening partner, Tom Latham, set about building a solid base for the reply.

"The way the bowlers came out this morning and took those last three wickets and then the opening partnership, it really set us up," Guptill said.

"The partnership between Kane [Williamson, 92] and Ross [Taylor, 47] at the moment is a really good one and cemented our dominance of the day.

Guptill, playing in his first test for two years, was under pressure to produce the runs for New Zealand and while he didn't go on to post his third test century, his knock of 70 was an impressive one.

"I just wanted to bat the way I'd been batting the last few weeks and I think I did that," he said.

"My decision making was a lot better than it had been in my previous test matches, so I'm pretty happy with the way I went today.

"It was pleasing to score a few runs, it was obviously disappointing at the same time to end the way it did.

"But the partnership that Tom and I created really set the game up for us and to be 148-1 and then unfortunately be at the same score with two down was disappointing, but the way Kane and Ross picked up from where we left off, was very pleasing."

Guptill added that he thought the pitch would start to take turn over the last couple of days of the test, which makes kicking on over day three and building a big lead over england all the more important.

"It's starting to flatten out a wee bit and got slower as the day went on," he said.

"So it's going to be tough going on days four and five, but if we can put up a big first innings total, get a good lead and put some pressure on England next time round, then I think we should be in a good position."