Cricket: Papps' century gives Bracewell food for thought

7.30am - By MARK GEENTY

CANTERBURY, England - A Michael Papps century may have come too late to save his test place but he at least tweaked New Zealand cricket coach John Bracewell's selection headache today.

The incumbent test opener, seemingly destined to carry the drinks in next Thursday's first test at Lord's, clawed back with a fighting 126 on day one of the four-day tour match against Kent.

Papps' seventh first-class century halted a tour sequence of nought, one and six and put the heat back on Bracewell who has the task of omitting either him or the experienced Craig McMillan next week.

The tourists' day one total of 297 for two was dominated by Papps and Mark Richardson's 244 in 288 minutes, a record opening partnership against a county side in 14 New Zealand tours of England stretching back to 1931.

It beat Bert Sutcliffe and Verdun Scott's 229 against Surrey in 1949, and was a welcome jolt from their 13.8 average stand against South Africa.

Richardson was in good touch with a chanceless 92 until he was fooled by a looping slower ball from England under-19 paceman David Stiff.

More than 3000 Kent supporters lined the oval at one of England's most appealing grounds -- complete with a centuries-old tree inside the boundary -- but they only downed their newspapers and cucumber sandwiches to applaud New Zealand boundaries in the first five hours.

Papps, 24, admitted he faced a tough job to dislodge the senior top-six for Lord's, with the injured Stephen Fleming expected to open with Richardson if his hip flexor injury improves.

"There's a lot of high quality batsmen and all you can do is score runs and do your utmost to put your name in the picture," Papps said.

"I haven't had a lot of luck of late so it was good to get a bit early on."

The Kent attack were understrength, without their rested imports Mohammad Sami of Pakistan and Andrew Symonds of Australia, and one-time England paceman Martin Saggers.

Combined with the easy-paced pitch and three spilled slips catches -- one off Nathan Astle's third ball -- the New Zealand batsmen were onto a winner after stand-in captain Chris Cairns won the toss.

Papps started shakily and was dropped on 23 and 34 attempting off drives, both catchable chances to the slips cordon.

He got going with a series of his favourite cuts and drives through point as Stiff, a new signing from Yorkshire, had a horror day.

The tall young paceman bowled 20 no-balls and went for 79 off 17 overs, although he later broke the partnership when Papps was trapped leg before wicket.

Papps reached three figures with his 15th boundary just before tea, off 207 balls, after throwing in some classy straight drives and flicks off his pads.

Papps shuffled across and was trapped in front in the 76th over, having faced 248 balls, and four overs later a bemused Richardson departed when he ducked what he thought was a beam ball.

Richardson had a polished test warmup, batting 305 minutes and facing 227 balls, including 11 fours -- one hitting the historic lime tree at extra cover.

"We've had a few digs and haven't really clicked but today we batted well together and complemented each other," said Papps.

Astle recovered from his near miss to slay seven boundaries in his 32 not out, and with Scott Styris will look to bat much of tomorrow with McMillan and Cairns to follow.

New Zealand

First innings

M Richardson b Stiff 92

M Papps lbw b Stiff 126

N Astle not out 32

S Styris not out 14

Extras (6b, 6lb, 1w, 20nb) 33

Total (for 2 wkts, 92 overs) 297

Bowling: A Sheriyar 24-8-62-0 (1w), A Khan 21-5-65-0, D Stiff 17-1-79-2 (20nb), R Ferley 16-3-48-0, M Patel 14-2-31-0


- NZPA