View photos: NZ v England, fifth one-dayerKEY POINTS:
The great New Zealand test batting debate may get a resolution when an Otago invitation XI plays England in a two-day game in Dunedin starting today.
Batsmen Mathew Sinclair and Peter Fulton will get a last chance to push their cases, as will Wellington fast-medium bowler Mark Gillespie.
Test certainties and Wellington teammates Matthew Bell and Stephen Fleming will also bat to have a final workout ahead of the opening five-dayer.
None of those five has played any first-class cricket since Bangladesh departed early in January - in Gillespie's case even longer.
The domestic programme has consisted of a diet of one-day and Twenty20 games. With England's test series the centrepiece of the summer, the preparation afforded the country's best players has been poorly planned.
The two-dayer is far from ideal but at least it means the chance for an innings of some length, particularly for Sinclair and Fulton, and a decent bowl for Gillespie, whose inclusion is in some respects the most intriguing.
His only test, in South Africa in December, produced five for 136. He went to Australia and was average in the Chappell Hadlee series, injured a shoulder in the second ODI against Bangladesh in Napier on December 28 and has returned to action for Wellington in only the last couple of State Shield matches.
He took a tidy two for 41 in their final game against Canterbury last Wednesday and grabbed six for 41 for North City against Karori in a top-of-the-table Wellington club clash yesterday.
The options to be third seamer in the first test starting in Hamilton on March 5 are severely limited. Iain O'Brien is a honest toiler. Michael Mason is getting over an injury.
If Gillespie - who is bouncy, swings the ball and can be lively - impresses over the next two days, he might get the job.
For Fulton and Sinclair the situation is simple. Fulton lost his place in the final ODI in Christchurch on Saturday night, having been out of touch, and out of luck in the six Twenty20 and ODI games he played against England.
He hit 66 for Canterbury in their shield semifinal against Otago in Christchurch yesterday. With Jamie How a possibility to open with Bell in the first test, Fulton might be required at No 3. But he needs to show he's sorted out a tendency to push across the line, which has undone him several times this summer.
Sinclair has averaged 39 in his past five shield games. His game is well known to the selectors. It won't change now, so he needs to demonstrate his eye is in against the English bowlers.
England have their fingers crossed for their quickest bowler, Steve Harmison, who arrived in New Zealand with a lower back strain.
Tall seamer Chris Tremlett, who was due to fly home early this week, has been kept on as cover for Harmison for the next week.
Tremlett had an MRI scan in Christchurch yesterday for a side strain. No damage showed up but it was being reassessed by an English Cricket Board specialist overnight. Both bowled in the nets today and hopes are high for Harmison.
England have a three-dayer against Otago starting on Thursday. If Harmison is not ready for that match his chance of making the first test are slim, simply because he's come out of an English winter and has no cricket to speak of behind him.
England have brought five players into the squad for the test leg of the tour - captain Michael Vaughan, opener Andrew Strauss, key spinner Monty Panesar, swing man Matthew Hoggard and Harmison.
If Harmison is fit, all five will figure in a match in which all the batsmen will bat and all bowlers will get a workout. rather than a strictly 11 v 11 game.
ODI captain Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen are rested.
