KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand cricketers have failed to get any more match practice with the third day of the match against Kent rained off.
The match was drawn with New Zealand on their overnight score of 92 for one featuring an unbeaten 53 from stand-in captain Jamie How and 20 not out from James Marshall.
Kent made 324 for one declared after Robert Key (178 not out) and James Tredwell (123 not out) plundered the New Zealand bowling attack.
The next match is a four-dayer against Essex starting tomorrow night at Chelmsford, followed by a match against the Lions in Southampton.
Key, who has now scored three consecutive hundreds against the Black Caps following on from 2004, will captain the England A side in a bid to regain his test spot.
Matthew Hoggard has also forced his way back into the reckoning, picked after his eight-wicket haul for Yorkshire against Hampshire this week.
However, Andrew Flintoff will not be playing. He is continuing his rehabilitation after a fourth bout of ankle surgery.
Meanwhile, the five Black Caps allowed to play in the Indian Premier League - captain Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills have joined the team.
Vettori had helped his Delhi Daredevils to a 10-run win over the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the IPL Twenty20 competition the day before.
Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath took four wickets for Delhi.
Indian opener Gautam Gambhir scored 86 from 54 balls to spearhead the Daredevils to a strong total of 191 for five from their 20 overs.
McGrath and Vettori then starred with the ball to restrict the Challengers to 181 for five despite the efforts of South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis (54 from 44).
McGrath took 29 for four, dismissing Bangalore's top three batsman and Indian veteran Rahul Dravid, before Vettori's economic four-over spell of one for 19 sealed the win for the home side.
- NEWSTALK ZB, NZPA
