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Drum shows wicket-taking ability

Pace bowler Chris Drum gave the national cricket selectors a reminder notice with a five-wicket haul against a shadow New Zealand World Cup side in a one-day match at Lincoln Green.

The Auckland right-arm medium-fast bowler, who did not make the final 15-man squad, bowled with accuracy and aggression to claim five for 42 from nine overs. His outstanding effort was to no avail, though, as the shadow Black Caps side still beat a second XI line-up by 79 runs yesterday in the 45-over game.

Drum had Matthew Horne (7) and Roger Twose (0) trapped leg before, then returned later to remove all-rounders Adam Parore, Chris Harris, and Dion Nash. Another player not to make the side, Shayne O'Connor, produced a tidy spell of no wickets for 12 from six overs.

The New Zealand innings was dominated by a fine 75 from opener Nathan Astle, an encouraging effort with the team leaving for the World Cup in England on Sunday.

Astle easily top scored, his runs coming from 112 balls with six fours and three sixes. The next highest score was extras on 28. Captain Stephen Fleming (25), Parore (21), and Nash (25) all got under way, but neither Chris Cairns (6) or Craig McMillan (0), both returning from injury, got out of single figures. McMillan was unlucky to succumb to a brilliant run-out by Scott Styris after facing just one ball.

The B side, which was light on specialist batting, struggled from the outset and was eventually dismissed for 121 in 33.3 overs in reply to New Zealand's 200 for nine.

Gary Stead was promoted to open in the absence of Bryan Young, but was dismissed without scoring, while opening partner Matthew Bell took 30 balls to get off the mark. He eventually top scored with 25 from 80 balls, including three successive fours from an Astle over.

Harris and Daniel Vettori closed out the innings, taking seven wickets between them.

Short scoreboard: New Zealand 200-9 in 45 overs (N Astle 75, extras 28, S Fleming 25, D Nash 25; C Drum 5-42, G Larsen 2-34) beat New Zealand B 121 in 33.3 overs (M Bell 25, S Doull 20; D Vettori 4-28, C Harris 3-28).