The third game between a New Zealand XI and Emerging XI is in the scorebook, wrapping up the series showcasing our second tier of kiwi cricketers. You'll be graced with a full debrief of the series in the coming days, but for now we'll solely focus on the third and final game which saw one of the teams win - good for them.

Batting first, the Emerging XI were led by their bowlers with Todd Astle hitting 75* and Scott Kuggeleijn whacking 48 off 42 balls. There wasn't a whole lot else in their total of 231 besides another 'come in, give it a tonk and get out' innings from Colin de Grandhomme and it's not ideal that with a top-four of Hamish Rutherford, Cameron Fletcher, Rob O'Donnell and Corey Anderson, the two highest scores came via bowling all-rounders.

Astle actually enjoyed a promotion up the batting card. Having come in at No.8 in the first two games, Astle was bumped up to No.6 and did the job beautifully and while I prefer the Blackcaps to roll with young spinners, giving them time to grow into international cricket, a few runs from Astle should remind the selectors of what he could offer the limited overs teams. Let's not forget that Jimmy Neesham is currently in India to give the Blackcaps options and depth, Astle's spin is probably better suited to India and he could possibly bat just as well as Neesham. Hmm.

That was Astle's first notable score of the series, just as it was Kuggeleijn and it's a similar story for Kuggeleijn as he's taking wickets and has a nice innings with the bat to his name. Ideally, these lads shouldn't be required to score runs but they were and both are lurking on the fringes of the Blackcaps so being able to hold their own with the bat is just another reason to pick either of them.

Ben Wheeler took 2/8 off 3 overs, knocking the top off the NZ XI's batting line up as he had Rutherford and Fletcher trapped lbw. Jacob Duffy also took 2/54 off 8 and Hamish Bennett took 2/41 off 8, chipping away at the Emerging XI. Duffy and Wheeler hold the intrigue here as they have both taken at least a wicket in every appearance in the series, Wheeler missed the second game and only bowled 3 overs in the third while Duffy went back to back with 2-wicket games to finish the series.

As if the cricket gods care greatly for my well-being, Will Young led the charge for the NZ XI with 81 off 94 balls. Remember that Young is one of three young batsmen who I had grouped together and with O'Donnell and Mark Chapman both putting up notable scores across the first two games, Young was in danger of being left behind. Chapman didn't play this final game and O'Donnell could only manage 6, gifting Young the opportunity to stake his claim and he did so coming at No.3.

The other notable score for the NZ XI came via Tim Seifert, as he came in at No. 5 and hit 67 off 54 balls including a trio of sixes. That's Seifert's second handy knock in three games and with both Fletcher and Tom Blundell dismissed for ducks in this game, Seifert has quickly emerged as a leading contender, if not the understudy to BJ Watling - more on that in the full debrief.

Astle took 2/41 off 7 over, capping off a solid all-round performance from the Cantabrian. Matt Henry took 1/34 off 7 before jetting over to India to replace Tim Southee, while Seth Rance ensured that he picked up a wicket in every game with 1/32 off 6.2. It wasn't a good day for my man Ed Nuttall as he went wicket-less and was hit for 43 off just 5 overs.

Stay tuned for that debrief in the next few days, there's also a Kiwi County Tour on the way and we'll probably have to talk about the Blackcaps.