So England managed to pull off a 2-1 win in the away fixture. What sort of chance to the Kiwis have in the reverse fixture?
Fleming's retirement will be a big blow but Ross Taylor looks like a major find. He was top scorer in the series wasn't he?

Taylor, Vettori and, in places, Mills, McCullum, Oram and Martin looked useful for them in this series, but even an England team as uneven as this one should roll them over easily at home.

You get that sense that NZ are becoming a permanent second-tier nation at Test level now, though people do overlook their prowess at ODIs. They regularly make World Cup semi-finals, the sort of achievement that would have English pundits frothing.

McCullum's keeping has been shoddy apparently. Oram is good though. With him at 6 and McCullum at 7 and Vettori at 8 they have the chance to pick a genuine 5 man attack without sacrificing batting depth in the way that England (sans Flintoff) can't. In fact, even avec Flintoff nowadays we can't.

But they shouldn't be good enough.

If Southee's first test is anything to go by, they have the makings of an excellent lower order. If only Bond were regularly fit. The weak batting line-up probably means England are OK in the summer, though.

Vettori's batting ranking is higher than (amongst others) Michael Vaughan. He's certainly a better batsman than Bell or Sinclair, and he's more consistent than either Oram or McCullum.

Bond retired over the ICL furore. Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Ross Taylor and Kyle Mills are also going to arrive late due to IPL commitments, which isn't likely to help much .

On the plus side for NZ, Strauss will presumably retain his place in the England team.

Hasn't Justin Vaughan (NZ CEO, no relation to Michael) hinted that Bond and Scotty Styris may be able to return? No quote, alas.

Here's England's stats for the six winter tests:

Matches, Innings, Not out, Runs, Average

Bell 6 12 1 511 46

Strauss 3 6 274 46

Prior 3 5 1 165 41

Cook 6 12 472 39

Collingwood 6 12 1 409 37

Pietersen 6 12 1 385 35

Ambrose 3 6 204 34

Vaughan 6 12 338 28

Broad 3 5 1 92 23

Anderson 3 5 3 32 16

Sidebottom 6 11 3 103 13

Bopara 3 5 42 8

Hoggard 3 5 29 6

Panesar 6 9 3 29 5

Harmison 3 4 1 10 3


Wickets, Runs, Average

Collingwood 8- 188- 24

Sidebottom 29- 728- 25

Broad 9- 345- 38

Panesar 19- 737- 39

Anderson 10-450-45

Hoggard 8-356-45

Harmison 7-336-48

Bopara 1-81-81

Pietersen 1-96-96

In other news, India have replied to South Africa's 540 with 468/1 at the end of play on Day 3. Sehwag is on 309 not out. Off 292 balls.

It's a flat wicket, but by all accounts neither side has bowled terribly well (d'oh).

Is Sehwag on course to break the longest-lived test record (highest proportion of teams runs in one innings)?

He was out for 319 (off 304 balls), in a total of 627.

He didn't then. Bannerman scored about 67% of Australia's runs in that innings, Sehwag just scraped over 50% of India's. Poor show!

Other near failures:

Gooch scores 154* out of 252 against Ambrose, Marshall, Patterson and Walsh. England win.

Lara scores 153* out of 311-9 against McGrath, Gillespie, Warne and McGill. Just under half (though Lara was operating under the disadvantage of not coming in till 5) and wouldn't have counted anyway as innings wasn't completed.

Well, first test next starts next week, with the Kiwis fresh off a decent win against Essex. The star of the show the fresh-faced 33 tear old Michael Mason who gets 7-101.
Meanwhile Shane Bond is suggesting that the door isn't closed as far as he's concerned.

Anyone up for a day or two of this? It's only the Kiwis, tickets have got to be gettable.

I would be, but the tickets for Lords are £60 a pop.

There are tickets available for the Oval one-dayer for £50, £62 or £72 depending on the stand.