New Zealand resumed on 275 for three at the start of the second day, but Chris Mpofu's career-best figures of 4 for 92 saw the Black Caps lose their last five wickets for just 25 runs to post 426 - a total below what they would have had in mind.

Vusi Sibanda then made an unbeaten half-century to guide Zimbabwe to stumps on 82 for one, and although they remain 344 runs adrift the hosts have every chance of matching the New Zealand total.

Zimbabwe won their Test against Bangladesh on their return to the five-day game three months ago and put up some stern resistance in the first innings of a defeat to Pakistan in September, but Butcher felt that his side's performance on Wednesday exceeded anything they produced in those two encounters.

"I think we did more than just shade the day to be honest. To get seven wickets for 160 on that wicket and to then finish 82 for one, I think we won the day," said Butcher.

"There are still three days left and winning one day isn't enough, so we've still got a lot of work to do, but I feel it was an outstanding performance in the field led by Chris Mpofu, who was terrific throughout his spells.

"I feel that we've probably had our best day of Test cricket today, notwithstanding the win against Bangladesh."

Nevertheless, Butcher acknowledged that Zimbabwe have a long way to go to if they are to get something out of the Test.

"Tomorrow is going to be a vital day, and if we can bat well and bat into Friday then we'll go a long way towards making the game at least safe," he said.

"I think the way the pitch is playing it's slow, and you could see New Zealand struggled to score quickly so it's not going to be easy for us to push on and get far enough ahead for a victory. What we need to do is first make the game safe and then see what happens from there.

"That's two days on though, so we need to have a good morning session, bat well through the afternoon and make sure we're still at the crease at the close of play, and that's going to be hard work."

Zimbabwe looked likely to avoid defeat in the Test against Pakistan after they made 412 and then restricted Pakistan to 466 in reply. However a batting collapse by the home side on the fourth afternoon undid all the hard work as they slumped to 69 for eight in their second innings, a position from which they were unable to recover.

Butcher is mindful of that disappointment and his players know that one bad session could see them lose the Test, but he hasn't been making too great a point of it.

"You can only compete a ball at a time, an over at a time, an hour at a time. You can't set out to compete on the fifth day unless you've done it all the way through from ball one, which is why I always speak about getting the processes right, and very rarely speak about winning or losing," he said.

"I firmly believe that if you don't do the things right you're never going to get into a position to win the match. Obviously losing the toss made it difficult because on a flat pitch it's important to get a big score and control the game, but at the start of today I would have thought New Zealand were looking at 500-plus, but the fact we took seven for 160 got us back in touch.

"We're not yet back in the game because we're still a long way behind, but we could have been a lot further behind than we are if it weren't for such a strong showing today."

Mpofu's bowling was the key to Zimbabwe's revival, and his success was largely a reward for maintaining his control for long spells which frustrated the batsmen on a slow pitch.

"I didn't look to attack a lot, I just tried to keep things simple like the coach told us before we went out there yesterday," said Mpofu. "We didn't get many sticks yesterday, but we knew that if we kept hitting our lengths then the wickets would come.

"To tell the truth, I don't think the rain changed anything with the pitch (between day one and day two). The only thing that changed was that we took wickets because the pitch still didn't offer much help."

Butcher backed up that sentiment by insisting that Mpofu had not bowled much differently on days one and two.

"I thought he bowled well both yesterday and today, as everybody else did. Today he got the rewards for that because he persisted and kept doing the right things."

Looking at the bigger picture, Butcher believes that days like Wednesday are another brick in the wall as Zimbabwe rebuild their cricket side.

"The more we can play competitive cricket and show the right skill levels, the right discipline and the right application, the more people are going to respect what we're doing in the Test arena. It's going to be good for our confidence as we progress, and I genuinely think the side is growing in all those areas. Days like today will only boost that and help our progress."

Tristan Holme in Bulawayo

By Special correspondent