Cricket: England A emulate seniors by collapsing

New Zealand A 261 v England A 38-4 Lunch today

ENGLAND A emulated the senior side here this morning when they wrapped up New Zealand A's innings with James Kirtley completing a five- wicket haul, but then lost their top four batsmen before lunch on this third of four days. They reached the interval on 38 for 4.

When the home side resumed this morning on 235 for 7, they quickly lost Gareth Hopkins to Paul Franks without adding to his overnight score, and then Kirtley took the last two wickets to finish with figures of 5 for 54.

After losing Sunday's play to rain and some of yesterday's to rain and bad light, Mark Alleyne's decision to put the home side in seemed justified by this morning's completion of a good job in the field. But the complexion of the match changed when Chris Drum removed Ward, Solanki and Trescothick and Andy Penn bowled David Sales, leaving Alleyne and Aftab Habib to attempt a rescue.

Lunch third day of four; England A won toss

NEW ZEALAND A - First Innings

*G R Stead c Trescothick b Franks 3

M D Bell c Turner b Kirtley 7

M S Sinclair c Trescothick b Kirtley 62

L Vincent c Turner b Alleyne 13

M H Richardson lbw b Kirtley 74

S B Styris lbw b Schofield 0

G J Hopkins b Franks 20

W A Wisneski c Turner b Schofield 23

A J Penn lbw b Kirtley 27

P J Wiseman c Turner b Kirtley 9

G J Drum not out 4

Extras (b5 lb7 nb7) 19

Total (98.5 overs) 261

Fall: 1-11 2-25 3-56 4-149 5-158 6-184 7-213 8-235 9-256.

Bowling: Franks 21-7-44-2; Sheriyar 24-3-74-0; Kirtley 18.5-4-54-5; Alleyne 11-5-22-1; Schofield 24-9-55-2.

ENGLAND A - First Innings

I J Ward b Drum 8

M E Trescothick c Penn b Drum 8

V S Solanki c Hopkins b Drum 2

D J Sales b Penn 8

*M W Alleyne not out 5

A Habib not out 3

Extras (lb2 nb2) 4

Total (for 4, 17 overs) 38

Fall: 1-8 2-12 3-26 4-33.

To bat: R J Turner, C P Schofield P J Franks, R J Kirtley, A Sheriyar.

Bowling: Drum 7-3-16-3; Wisneski 8-1-15-0; Penn 2-0-5-1.

Umpires: B F Bowden and R D Anderson.