Andrew Flintoff’s latest injury and Paul Collingwood’s fitness worries provided a much-needed extra dimension to the performance of the England Lions yesterday.

Beforehand, nobody much cared if they roared or not: it was probable that none would make the squad for the Lord’s Test; afterwards, it was possible that both a fast bowler and batsman might be included in an England 13 this morning.

Circumstances presented themselves more to the batsmen. For the bowlers, most of the evidence had to be drawn from the previous day’s work, though they will likely get another chance today. Matthew Hoggard claimed three late wickets on Friday but had been much less peppery than Chris Tremlett.

Yesterday, when play resumed with one New Zealand wicket remaining, Hoggard failed to make an impression in his opening spell and was soon replaced by Tremlett, though it eventually fell to Graham Onions, an outside contender for Lord’s himself, to trap Aaron Redmond leg before for 146 to deny him the privilege of carrying his bat and the New Zealand-ers of a first-innings lead.

Of the England batsmen, Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah and Luke Wright would all have harboured aspirations of a call-up should cover be required for Collingwood. Shah played in accomplished fashion in making a fluent 43 before falling lbw to the hardworking Chris Martin. Bopara has some sublime shots in his locker but there is a suspicion that he still has to work out which shots work best for him; he was out hooking at Martin.

In the event, their thunder was stolen by an accomplished century from Michael Carberry. Unsurprisingly perhaps, given that this is his home ground, for the second time in the game Carberry looked thoroughly at home. If England were looking for another opening batsman, Carberry would be pushing Robert Key, the England Lions captain, on their list of options; as it is, he may have to be patient, but days like this won’t do his cause any harm.

For Carberry, 27, this is his best four-day game of the season by a distance. His previous scores of 8, 2, 13 and 14 may or may not be a reaction to a good Lions tour of India, during which he scored two centuries.

Carberry’s celebrations were bizarrely cut short when he pulled up clutching the back of his right thigh while completing his 100th run and had to be stretchered off the field.

Carberry’s cricketing journey has been peripatetic - Hampshire are his third county after spells at Surrey and Kent - but nothing like as exotic as Redmond’s. His father Rodney played for New Zealand once (scoring 56 and 107) but moved to Western Australia, where his son was spotted by a touring New Zealand side bowling leg-spin in the nets and encouraged to return “home” to pursue a playing career.

He did and has now taken more than 80 wickets in 69 first-class appearances. He bowled a long and competent spell in the final session yesterday, but it is as an opening batsman that he is earmarked to make his Test debut at Lord’s on Thursday.

His is a similar story to that of another New Zealand opener, Mark Richardson, who started out as a left-arm spinner but developed into an effective defensive batsman. On the evidence here, Redmond is not dissimilar in style and such is their inexperience of English conditions that New Zealand will be grateful to anyone capable of taking up residence at the crease in the way Redmond did here.

Redmond toured England with New Zealand A eight years ago, as did James Marshall, but Jamie How and Daniel Flynn are new to the country and Ross Taylor has only played the occasional game here for MCC Young Cricketers.

Of their likely starting XI, only four have played a Test at Lord’s, assuming Daniel Vettori is fit to play after sustaining a gash to his spinning finger. He had the stitches removed yesterday and the chances are that his bowling will be inhibited by the wound, yet he would be worth picking as batsman and captain alone.

However, even with Vettori, the disparity in experience between the sides is significant.

Tailender Chris Wright smashed an unbeaten 71, only his third first-class half century, to guide Essex to a remarkable two-wicket win over Middlesex at Chelmsford. The match had been evenly poised overnight with the hosts needing 176 with five wickets remaining, but the game looked up as they slipped to 202 for eight, 97 behind. But Wright took up the challenge, hitting 12 fours and a six in his 105-ball knock, and put on 99 with James Middlebrook (33no) to see Essex home against his former county.

Warwickshire batted out for a draw after being set 378 to beat Derbyshire at the County Ground. Jonathan Trott finished unbeaten on 45 as Warwickshire closed on 160-4.

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