Battered and bruised Black Caps battle on
Peter McGlashan |
We’re on the bus on the way home after our first Super 8 game and it’s a chance to reflect on our victory over Ireland.
It was a fairly comprehensive performance from our side with only a few errors in the field preventing a nearly perfect team effort. It started at the top with new recruit Aaron Redmond dominating the opening partnership, outshining his more illustrious partner.
Redmond only joined the team last night, fresh from a few weeks of league cricket in Wigan. His form in domestic Twenty20 last season earnt him a chance and he took it with both hands, smashing the joint fastest 50 to date off 23 balls. It was a more classical innings than Gayle’s bashing or Dilshan’s innovation and was laced with drives around the ground.
He was deservedly named ‘Man of the Match’ and I only hope we can get him a shirt with his name on it rather than the taped up home made job he had to wear today. After originally being picked as a Test opener, he has expanded his game, those having seen his final test innings will remember the aggressive approach he had against Australia.
England are capitulating as we speak, we’ve got Sky Sport on the bus. South Africa are a very good side but we thought we had the measure of them the other day. It was a game we should have won after such a strong performance in the field. To fall short so meekly was very disappointing and we sure won’t make the same mistake next time.
We head back to London tomorrow and look forward to our battle against Pakistan. With Ross Taylor on the mend and Dan Vettori still recovering hopefully we have a full line up to pick from. Jesse is still crook and we wish him well with his recuperation.
As we’ve shown today though, we have depth across the board and in the extended squad.
So we live to fight another day, one step closer to a spot in the semis.
Bring it on!
Thanks for another article so soon after the last one Peter.
Who’s shirt was Redmond actually wearing out of interest?
Good luck for Pakistan!
Comment by Wayne | 12:00am BST 11 June 2009
Thanks for the update Pete. I’m sure you guys will win against the Pakistanis… Would like to see you bat up the order a little… 🙂
Cheers
Ganesh
Comment by Ganesh | 12:00am BST 12 June 2009
Cheers Peter. It’s a shame you were so professional against Ireland, we could have done with another upset! Best of luck against Pakistan though, looking forward to what should be a great game. One area where you certainly seem to have the edge over Pakistan is in the field. Does the New Zealand side work especially hard on their fielding or is it something that’s generally taken very seriously in club and first-class cricket across the country?
Comment by Quinners | 12:00am BST 12 June 2009
Bad luck in the Pakistan game Peter, Umar Gul seemed too good! Good luck for the must win game against Sri Lanka!
Comment by Sandra | 12:00am BST 13 June 2009
Hard luck, mate. Pakistan came trumps today with a clinical display. Wish you the best of luck for Sri Lanka. You have a great side ideally suited for T20 and should give Sri Lanka a serious run. By the way, Vettori’s comments about Gul, what was it supposed to mean. Clearly, it was nothing but a superb display of disciplined fast bowling.
Comment by Akpower | 12:00am BST 13 June 2009
Hi all,
We are on the bus again but this time on our way north to Nottingham. Hopefully Ireland can get up against Sri Lanka and we will be able to sneak into semi with a win over them on Tuesday.
To answer your questions, I’m not sure whose shirt Redders had on, yesterday he had a blank one on which the crowd out on the boundary enjoyed mocking him for.
Fielding is something that most New Zealand sides pride themselves on. We do work particularly hard on areas of innovation like working together in groups in the field and hunting in packs. It is an area of the game not dictated to you by the quality of your opposition.
I didn’t hear Dan’s comments about Umer Gul. It was an exceptional spell of bowling and we are still astounded at how they managed to get the ball to reverse swing in the 12th over. It has been a while since we have faced such an astounding display of reverse swing bowling so we will need to pick it up when we face Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
Thanks again for following, will be in touch again soon.
Comment by Peter McGlashan | 12:00am BST 14 June 2009
It was just a bad day for ur’ll, forget the past.
dont worry ur’ll are there for the semi.
New Zealand is really a good side for sure.
ALL THE BEST for the next match against Sri lanka.
Hope B.McCullum has not injured himself while catching the last ball.
PLzzz comment on that.
God bless u
Take care & All the best from the bottom of my heart.. keep smiling
Comment by sweetheart | 12:00am BST 14 June 2009
A great fan of the Kiwis professionalism both on and off the field it came as a surprise to see everyone so off their game against Pakistan.
However, being an ardent Pakistani cricket lover i hope comments about Umar Gu’s reverse swinging abilities aren’t reminiscent of all-time greats like Wasim and Waqar being called cheaters because they were the only one’s who could reverse the ball at the time when “no one had seen the ball move like that”
Either way, good luck against Sri Lanka.
P.S. Great job with the cricket gear. Love the pads and head-gear.
Comment by Rida Qadri | 12:00am BST 14 June 2009
Fingers x’d for the Sri Lanka game, huh? Good luck, it’d be great to see the Black Caps win through to the final.
Re: Vettoris’ comments on Gul; all he was doing was illustrating the disbelief that a ball would reverse swing after 12 overs. It’s a wee bit complicated to explain here, but reverse swing occurs (generally) through a shift in weight due to moisture & damage as a ball ages. I’m a bowler myself, and utilise reverse swing, but I’ve never seen a pill go Irish that early.
Comment by Bullet | 12:00am BST 16 June 2009
Hot blog. Love your work, Mr Multi-Talented! x
Comment by Melly Moo | 12:00am BST 16 June 2009