Andy Flower drew numerous positives from the performances of the England Lions in the Royal London One-Day Series against South Africa A despite a damp squib in Northampton on Monday.
Essex youngsters Dan Lawrence and Jamie Porter were selected for their Lions debuts, but unable to contribute as only five overs were possible in which Dawid Malan and Ben Duckett put on 28 - leaving Malan with an average of 221 for the series having been dismissed only once.
However the Lions had already secured the series with convincing victories in the first two matches, and Flower believes they have shown again that English cricket has plenty of white-ball talent with the potential to step up to the international game whenever opportunities arise.
“To play against our peers from other nations is a good measure of where we are, and so to beat them in the manner in which we did is a good sign for English cricket,” he said.
“The twin goals are to expose our guys to international cricket at this level, and then also for the individuals to be able to show what they can do, in particular to the England selectors who watch these games closely. We’ve had some outstanding performances in that regard.
"Malan stood out in both games, and again started strongly in the third. Duckett showed that he’s started to come back to form in the last couple of weeks, firstly with Northants and now with us.
“Daniel Bell-Drummond also made a contribution to our first win at Trent Bridge, carrying on the good county form he has been showing for Kent, and in the second game Liam Livingstone, who has had a slightly quiet time with Lancashire of late, batted with real freedom and power to show what an exciting batsman he can be. We hope he can take confidence from his time with the Lions back into the Lancashire batting side.
“Tom Curran and Craig Overton as our fast bowling all-rounders have shown some real skill and class at this level, and are pushing for higher honours. Liam Dawson repeatedly and consistently displays good skill and cricketing nous - he’s an experienced and streetwise cricketer. And I thought James Vince’s tactical captaincy was outstanding.”
There was an additional short-term purpose of this series, in allowing the selectors to keep the players on the fringe of the Champions Trophy squad in white-ball action.
So when Chris Woakes was ruled out, Steven Finn was called up, after proving his form and fitness in the first two games of the Lions series. And Flower reckons that reinforced a useful message to the whole Lions squad.
“Finn being selected for our series was so he could get some white-ball cricket under his belt in case there was an injury, and that’s exactly how it’s come to pass,” added the coach. “But it is a good reminder to our players of how close they are to England selection. These are all hungry young guys with driving ambition to play for England, and they know that when they’re playing in these series for the Lions, they’re getting closer.”
The Lions players now return to their counties for the next round of matches in the Specsavers County Championship and, in some cases, the knockout stages of the Royal London One-Day Cup.
But the focus will switch to red-ball cricket, with the squad for a four-day match against South Africa A in Canterbury to be named next week, and a three-day game against the senior South Africa tourists to anticipate at the end of the month.
“We want to select strong sides for those, and keep up our standards,” Flower confirmed.
Congratulations to @vincey14 and the Lions who won the one-day series 2-0 following today's washout against SA A. pic.twitter.com/ujQJQ69oGG
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) 5 June 2017