It is far too early to talk about Luke Wright as a replacement for Andrew Flintoff, whose latest failure with the bat was of far greater significance than anything that happened at the Rose Bowl yesterday, but he was the only England Lions player to enhance his reputation with a wonderful exhibition of uninhibited strokeplay.

Until Wright went in to smash 120 off 131 balls with two sixes and 16 fours, Geoff Miller, the national selector, was probably reflecting that, if a big part of his job is to eliminate the players that he is not sure about, he had had a productive day watching one batsman after another confirming his suspicions.

It was almost certainly too late for any of them to change his mind anyway because Miller had spent much of the previous day in a six-hour meeting with Peter Moores, Ashley Giles and James Whitaker, his fellow selectors, at Trent Bridge, where they probably finalised the England squad for the first npower Test starting at Lord's on Thursday.

Even so, Robert Key, Owais Shah and Matthew Prior, to name but three, were hoping to press their claims for selection, if not this weekend then at some stage of the summer, so they will have been bitterly disappointed to perish in the face of an incisive spell of fast-medium bowling by Chris Martin.

Miller no doubt nodded sagely because they all betrayed familiar failings during an afternoon session that saw the England Lions lose five wickets for 41 runs in 13 overs before Wright dominated stands of 81 with Adil Rashid and, improbably, 77 with Matthew Hoggard.

The New Zealanders were without Daniel Vettori, their captain, who is hoping that his split spinning finger will heal in time for Lord's, and Kyle Mills, who has been rested after a thorough workout in the previous game, but they were good enough to give the England hopefuls a stiff examination.

Most of them failed it. Key, who had scored 440 in three previous matches against the New Zealanders, including 178 not out at Canterbury ten days ago, struggled to 23 in 29 overs before lunch and fell leg-before trying to whip a ball of full length from Martin through mid-wicket.

Shah was soon caught behind groping forward and Prior, driving loosely, edged Martin to the finer of two gullies. Ravi Bopara got an inside edge into his stumps off Tim Southee and Michael Carberry, who had been there 197 minutes for 41 off 137 balls, lobbed a catch to mid-on off Iain O'Brien.

It was left to Wright, 23, to show what could be achieved on an excellent pitch with the kind of performance that has won him a place in England’s one-day international side. He was dropped on 28, raced from 50 to 100 off only 51 balls and did not betray a trace of nerves as he completed only his third first-class century with a six.