Injured Blackcaps wicketkeeper Tom Latham remains in contention to play in New Zealand's opening Cricket World Cup match against Sri Lanka on Saturday (NZ time).
Latham had his first full day of training on Friday (NZT), as he continues to recover from a fractured left finger, sustained in a warm-up match against Australia three weeks ago.
The injury saw the 27-year-old forced to wear a splint on his finger and he was limited to practicing with tennis balls earlier in the week.
But Latham is back training with the white ball, and felt no pain or discomfort, as he batted in the nets and caught balls at full pace.
Latham's feeling good about his chances to feature against Sri Lanka in Cardiff.
"The ball was going into the gloves nicely and I didn't manage to take one on the finger," said Latham.
"But we still have to wait till tomorrow to see how it pulls up and have a hit against our bowlers.
"We're taking it step by step, and hopefully the fracture has healed by now and it's more a maintenance thing.
"We've got all the protection around it and hopefully, fingers crossed, we can not take a ball on there."
Blackcaps coach Gary Stead was pleased with Latham's progress.
"Tom has reached all the milestones we've wanted him to and he's probably slightly ahead of time," said Stead.
"Today was another step in terms of taking balls with more heat on them, and making him dive and jump around a wee bit more.
"We'll see how he scrubs up tomorrow, but things are looking more and more positive."
Stead confirmed that Latham would bat and keep if he plays, meaning Tom Blundell would likely miss out, despite his 105-run knock against the West Indies in the Blackcaps' second warm-up match.
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