KEY POINTS:
Peter Fulton has provided John Bracewell and fellow tour selectors, Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum, a two metre-sized headache. The lanky Cantabrian looked good in his first meaningful bat in a month, scoring 57 against a Northants attack that gave new meaning to the word modest.
Bracewell stated emphatically after the Manchester debacle that the top six needed time to bed in and he would be reluctant to make changes. Fulton, he said, was here essentially as cover for Daniel Flynn.
Flynn batted for the first time yesterday since having his teeth rearranged by James Anderson and looked all at sea, scraping together six fortunate runs before being trapped on his crease leg before.
Perhaps more troubling was the sight of James Marshall still struggling in the pivotal first-drop position. He made just 11 before gifting a catch to first slip. His century against Essex now seems a long time ago and he has failed to pass 30 in his four test innings, two of which were ducks.
It is difficult to make a compelling case for Fulton on the back of a half-century against a weak attack. However, the way he punctuated his innings with flowing drives and vicious pulls, one of which easily cleared the longest boundary for six, should at least make the selectors wonder if he would be a better option than Marshall for a test next week New Zealand has to win to square the series.
Batting at the other end from Fulton was Aaron Redmond (121), who shared an 113-run partnership with Fulton and went on to his second first-class century of the tour.
"It was great. It was the first time I had batted with Fults in about six years, going back to my time at Canterbury."
When Redmond scored 82 he also passed 500 runs for the tour, though 72 of them were at Arundel, not recognised as a first-class fixture.
While Redmond took 136 balls to register 50, by comparison he flew to his century off a further 64.
"A couple of hours at the crease and suddenly things start to click. I didn't even realise I'd scored that quick, I'm usually quite slow."
Redmond would happily transfer the runs he's scored on the first-class portion of the tour into the test arena but although his return of 51 runs in four innings is poor, he hasn't looked out of place at the highest level.
"I haven't felt bad but the biggest thing in this game is keeping things simple. At times you're not going to get runs but the thing with this innings is I've got to keep building momentum."
New Zealand were a bit of a mixed bag against an attack missing five top-class bowlers. Monty Panesar did not play and neither did four of Northants' five Kolpak players - Lance Klusener, Andrew Hall, Nicky Boje and quick bowler Johan van der Wath. Johann Louw was playing but apart from his first delivery that came perilously close to knocking Fulton's off stump out of the ground, he struggled for accuracy.
While Fulton, Redmond and McCullum (72) will be satisfied with their work, few others will be feeling so comfortable. Should New Zealand have had the opportunity to bat again this morning, there will be some, Marshall and Flynn in particular, who will be anxious for some crease time.
