Cricket: High hopes for fringe after winter series

A-team manager Grant Bradburn expects to see Plunket Shield benefits. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand's fringe test and limited-overs players should hit the ground running when the domestic first-class season starts early in November.

The New Zealand A side has returned from a quadrangular series of both T20 and three-day matches in Queensland against their corresponding teams from South Africa, India and Australia.

Manager Grant Bradburn gave the concept a big tick and expects the benefits to show through once the Plunket Shield starts.

"Playing competitive international cricket at this time of year in those conditions is just absolute gold for their preparation leading into our summer," Bradburn, who also coaches Northern Districts, said. "All those guys that got experience there will be that much better off for our domestic season."

The pitches were uniformly good for batting and the nature of the longer form games presented fresh hurdles.

"There were different challenges for us," Bradburn said. "It was a three-day concept with no first innings points, so it really created some urgency in terms of thinking about where we wanted to be positioned in the game."

The middle order batsmen, and the spinners, found it hard to make a large impression because of that urgency and the quality of the strips used in Brisbane and Townsville.

"The whole concept gets a big plus in terms of the opportunities players were presented with," Bradburn said. "There's clearly opportunities at the Black Caps level and some guys have advanced their standing and taken the chance to put themselves further forward towards that recognition."

The most eye-catching form in the T20s came from young Central Districts allrounder Doug Bracewell who took wickets and got brisk runs in the middle order.

"He really put his hand up during the whole tour. He bowled very well and he hits the ball extremely hard," Bradburn said.

Three centuries of contrasting nature highlighted the three-day section of the tournament.

Neil Broom clubbed a terrific 197 from 187 balls against the Australian Institute of Sport; BJ Watling, batting with a runner throughout after pulling a hamstring, made a brave 139 in the second innings chase to carry New Zealand within 11 runs of a fine win, before bad light cut the game off; and Dean Brownlie's classy 181 against South Africa highlighted his qualities.

Brownlie was New Zealand's top runmaker with 413 at 103.25, second only overall to South African Reeza Hendricks. "His technique was impressive, he was very consistent on tour," Bradburn said of Brownlie. "He's well equipped to score runs at a higher level."

New Zealand drew with Australia and South Africa in the three-day series and lost by nine wickets to India; and beat South Africa and lost to Australia and India in the T20 games.