New Zealanders at Chelmsford

I'm at Chelmsford for Essex v the New Zealanders as the touring side tinker before the first Test on May 15. I was here on Friday as well but my laptop spent most of the day in the repair shop so apologies for a lack of blogging. I'll make up for it today.

The story so far in this match is that New Zealand looked pretty average when they were batting against a fairly unthreatening Essex attack, with the exception of James Marshall, who last played a Test three years ago and looks to have earned his recall to step into Stephen Fleming's shoes after making 128 on Friday. By happy coincidence, his twin brother Hamish was scoring his own hundred at almost exactly the same time - and off only five balls more - in Bristol for Gloucestershire.

Hamish won't be playing for New Zealand this summer after taking the ICL's shilling, but New Zealand's five IPL players, in their first game back in real cricket, did not impress with the bat. McCullum, Oram, Taylor, Vettori and Mills made just 64 runs between them, Vettori's 22 the pick. A last-wicket stand of 59 helped New Zealand to 355.

In reply, Essex also struggled, with Michael Mason, who has played one Test, the pick of the bowlers, taking four for 65. Chris Martin and Tim Southee are likely to return for the Test but Mason may yet earn one of the slots. Alastair Cook's rotten form with the bat continued, making 15, while Ravi Bopara's hot streak is such that his 66, Essex's top score in an innings of 258, seems a relative failure. Their second best score was 41 by Alex Tudor, a long-forgotten former England bowler who made his highest Test batting score of 99 not out against New Zealand back in 1999. His bowling lacks something these days after a long stream of injuries, but he is only 30 and may yet have more achievements in him.