England opening batsman Michael Lumb may have made 45 in a losing cause against a New Zealand XI on Wednesday, but he feels the side picked up enough silver linings heading into the series against the Black Caps.

England lost off the final ball of the warm up game by three wickets, with the Kiwis getting the required single to take them to 171 in a thrilling ending. It was nearly a bigger loss though, and Lumb credited Stuart Broad with the recovery.

Broad took three wickets and superb diving catch, adding to his hat-trick in the second match, as the fast bowling captain looked to recover the form he lost in the latter half of last year.

Lumb said: "Having Broady back dusting off a few cobwebs and back bowling, and setting fields I think it did him a lot of good going into Auckland and everyone, it was a good run around and I think it was very productive."

He continued: "I thought we could have defended it, I thought they batted pretty well and that's the nature of Twenty20. If one guy plays well and it comes off they can take the game away from you.

"They did that in the middle bit but we came back in the game well because they were running away with it at one point but unfortunately we didn't get over the line."

He added of Tom Latham, who made 64: "You've just got to take it on the chin when a guy plays like that, there's not a lot you can do. He played some good shots, in Twenty20 that can happen."

Lumb felt that while they lost, there were positives to take from the way they fought back, going into the T20 series, especially as they seemed to be losing by a long way, before a flurry of wickets at the death.

The batsman said: "We did drag it back well, they could have run away with it easily but we showed a bit of fight, the bowlers stuck in it, we held our catches and the good thing we can take away is that we have had a bit of pressure put on us and unfortunately we didn't get the result we wanted.

"But the game went to the wire and that should hold us in good stead if we should get some close games in the next few days."