Stuart Broad paid tribute to James Anderson after earning the England pair a place in the record books with a devastating display against New Zealand.

Broad took 4-21 on day three as he bowled four Black Caps top-order batters on Saturday, reducing the home side to 63-5 in their pursuit of 394 for victory in the first Test.

His efforts saw Broad and Anderson move to 1,005 Test wickets in matches where they have lined up in the same England team, going four past the record previously held by Australia greats Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.

Broad, 36, and 40-year-old Anderson have proven a remarkable pace partnership for England over the years, having first played on the same Test side at Wellington on a 2008 tour of New Zealand.

Fifteen years on, they remain key cogs in Brendon McCullum's England set-up.

Broad was quick to say Warne and McGrath remain a class apart, but he had fond words for Anderson, describing him as "a great leader to follow".

"It's a special country for us, New Zealand," Broad told BT Sport. "Back in 2008 at Wellington we came into the team together and to go past heroes of mine, growing up, in McGrath and Warne, certainly we're not in the category and quality of those two, they're absolutely heroic in what they did for the game.

"But to be up there and to have taken the amount of wickets with Jimmy – I feel very lucky and blessed to have been born in the same era as Jimmy, because certainly without him I wouldn't have been able to be at the other end taking wickets in the partnership that we've had.

"I've learnt so much from him throughout my career and he's probably the reason I'm still going at 36, in the way that he's done it."

England put up 374 in their second innings at Mount Maunganui's Bay Oval, with Joe Root top-scoring with 57 amid a slew of useful scores, with eight batters each contributing at least 25 runs.

Broad said he liked the look of the conditions while observing Tim Southee bowling for New Zealand earlier in the day.

"I saw from Timmy bowling this morning when he rolled his fingers across a few, I saw the nip to Rooty," Broad said. "That was quite encouraging, actually.

"Although the pitch has played pretty true in the day, when the evening's come it's just jagged around a little bit, so my game plan was to try to hit the pitch as hard as I possibly can with the wobble seam, and it's almost the perfect dryness of pitch for my kind of bowling.

"I didn't have to chase too full. I could still bowl it hard into the pitch and bring the stumps into play, and it's always nice when you get a few quality batters out, bowled."