***Official*** New Zealand in South Africa

[ohtani's jacket]

He'll get hyped up as the Next Big Thing, play the Aussies and suck and then pick up the odd fiver against West Indies or something.

New Zealand have sucked a lot in my lifetime, but this is some serious suck right here.

 

[Jono]

Screw that NZ, that was pathetic.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

What is it with the Kiwi ability to make decent express bowling look ****ing unplayable?

They do it against Malinga, now against Steyn - who's next? Taylor? Tait? Edwards?

 

[Xuhaib]

What is it with the Kiwi ability to make decent express bowling look ****ing unplayable?

They do it against Malinga, now against Steyn - who's next? Taylor? Tait? Edwards?

Sami got three 5-ers against them.

 

[aussie]

damn yo i worry what the Kiwis batting strenght will look like when Fleming retires.

 

[aussie]

What is it with the Kiwi ability to make decent express bowling look ****ing unplayable?

They do it against Malinga, now against Steyn - who's next? Taylor? Tait? Edwards?

lol, yea Lee & Akhtar have had field days against them in the past. But i think Steyn has something about him that Taylor, Edwards & Malinga (although he is no mug) dont. Don't know what it is but i won't be surprises if in 5-10 years time Steyn gets compared to former fast-bowling greats.

 

[Woodster]

Steyn has proved in this series what a handful he is in the right conditions and on this occasion, against the right opposition.
He has bowled a good length and got the ball to shape away nicely and at very good speed, even taking NZ's batting line up into account, he has the attributes to cause trouble for the best batsmen around in South African conditions. As ever, the acid test will be against Australia, but the series against England next year may offer one or two indications of where his career is going.

 

[Bahnz]

Mathew Sinclair is coming over after the end of the test series. Sigh. Exactly who he's meant to be replacing isn't 100% clear considering the side already has Vincent, How and (supposedly) McCullum as preferred openers and Taylor at 3.

Anyway a pathetic end to a disgraceful series as far as New Zealand is concerned. This is the worst effort that a New Zealand side has produced since the horror centenary season of 1994/1995, and it looks set to continue for a while. Styris and Oram seem to have completely lost it, McCullum is incapable of scoring more than 25 and Taylor is Taylor. What's worse Fleming, our only consistent batsman in the series, is set to retire after next year's tour of England, leaving us completely devoid of truly test class batsmen. Dark days ahead I'm afraid.

Things look slightly better for the bowling. Gillespie did well when he actually managed to land the ball on a length, Martin had a good series. Bond, though injured, looked threatening while he was on the park. And Franklin and Mills await their returns to the test side. Vettori as always was pretty useless, but it is South Africa, so we knew the pitches were never going to suit him.

Brilliant again from SA. Steyn just looks good. A lot of people are playing down his achievements in this series (and I recognise the standard of his opposition wasn't exactly top notch), but the way he bowls, with pace around 145 km/h, and huge swing, makes him look very dangerous. He's got a good bouncer too. I expect that he'll take a few wickets on South Africa's tour of England next year. He's also fantastically complemented by Ntini and Nel, those three really do work superbly as a unit. And Morkel is still to come. Some real depth in SA's seamers at the moment. As always Kallis was superb. The judgement is still out on Amla, his only decent scores come against New Zealand. How he does over the next year will determined whether he actually has turned the corner, or whether we're just his bunny team. But the rest of the batting line up was pretty average, which is surprising considering how talented their side is. Maybe you can just put that down to good bowling by New Zealand (and there was some).

On to the ODI's. NZ team

Vincent
How
Taylor
Styris
Sinclair
Oram (If fit)
McCullum
Vettori
Mills
Gillespie
Martin (there might be someone else, but I can't remember...)

 

[Beleg]

good fer ya, Steyn.

Good fer ya.

 

[sportychic33]

Mathew Sinclair is coming over after the end of the test series. Sigh. Exactly who he's meant to be replacing isn't 100% clear considering the side already has Vincent, How and (supposedly) McCullum as preferred openers and Taylor at 3.

Anyway a pathetic end to a disgraceful series as far as New Zealand is concerned. This is the worst effort that a New Zealand side has produced since the horror centenary season of 1994/1995, and it looks set to continue for a while. Styris and Oram seem to have completely lost it, McCullum is incapable of scoring more than 25 and Taylor is Taylor. What's worse Fleming, our only consistent batsman in the series, is set to retire after next year's tour of England, leaving us completely devoid of truly test class batsmen. Dark days ahead I'm afraid.

I wouldn't say that Oram has completely lost it, he only played the one test and at least got over 30 in one innings, whereas Styris looks like he doesn't want to bowl anymore which is going to place huge expectation (which there should be on his batting to perform) on his batting and he is failed in 4 innings. He is batting at number four and scores of

11, 16, 3, 29

are not acceptable for this level of cricket. Am definitely looking foward to Fulton coming back in and taking that number 4 spot of Styris. Would leave Taylor in the team as the South African tour is a hard tour to make your test debut against.

Gillespie looked promising and Martin looked as reliable as ever.

Things look slightly better for the bowling. Gillespie did well when he actually managed to land the ball on a length, Martin had a good series. Bond, though injured, looked threatening while he was on the park. And Franklin and Mills await their returns to the test side. Vettori as always was pretty useless, but it is South Africa, so we knew the pitches were never going to suit him

You won't see Franklin for at least another 6 months, so a bowler needs to be found to take his place ( probably Gillespie).

 

[Perm]

Haha @ New Zealand. So ****ing bad.

 

[Natman20]

Well this is sort of going to be a long comment.

Sinclair, I here has been called up to be sent over to South Africa for the ODI series (radio sport). What are the selectors thinking? First they don't pick a consistent New Zealand test player that reflects a lot of Australias top players and then they pick him for a series in which he is not suited to? They will see when Sinclair slows the batting down or doesn't make considerable differences that their decision is the wrong one. You don't pick a test specialist for ODIs in the same way you don't pick ODI specialists for Tests. i.e. Taylor, Gillespie.

My next conflict of interest is the raising the point again that the New Zealand team has not had any tests in about a year ago. They have not even had any practise as the domestic season has only just begun in New Zealand, although that is no excuse for their performances because of the amount they have played in South Africa. My point is that we as a nation will never rank as a successful test team because we are coached by a person that has never got test combinations right and has never focused on them due to the fact we never play any. Is it Bracewells fault? or is it New Zealand management? or is it the ICC? Whatever it is, give New Zealand a go. We are not consistently ranked in the top ODI positions by being 'crap'.

My next problem, injuries. Well it seems like the whole team could go home right now because they all seem to be picking up viruses or getting hit in the face with cricket balls. I don't think there has been a bowling attack as poor as this in a long time. Gillespie was fortunate to get his 5 for. His bowling was all over the place as always and has not shown any signs apart from pace that could make hime succesful in the future. I mean in ODIs his speciality he has taken wickets at an average of 40 something at an economy rate of almost 6, which is not a reason to be selected but not to be. How could such a wayward bowler in his speciality become more accurate in the longer test form? Anyway back to injuries. Again this may come down to lack of fitness etc. Everytime New Zealand goes away they seem to be like "We havn't played in a long time so we will have to get back into rythm again" which is absolute garbage. Most players have had enough experience before. I think there is a long period between tours and they just arn't preparing at all for tours. Lack of practise = lack of fitness = Inconsistency = Poor results.

Positives so far ... Chris martin looks much more like he should as a test bowler. He is causing some troubles in spells but sometimes strays in others. Even so I think we can justify his position in the test team. None of the bowlers have been striking wickets on a regular basis but I think if chances went his way Chris Martin could have made a huge impact this tour.

Stephen Fleming in my mind is looking the best of the New Zealand batsman. He has looked good when starting and has almost scored two fifties in this match which is much better than any other batsman in our line-up can boast. If he weren't there we wouldn't be looking at 136 but probably 90 something. No-one has helped him out and he often falls to stupid shots which may be brought about from the situation that he is positioned in.

Over-all this tour has been a shocker for New Zealand which has seen a loss in confidence for the players, the coaching and the selectors. Lets hope we see a drastic improvement by the time the ODIs come around. If we can compete in those it may restore some confidence as we have never really performed well in South Africa just like they don't over here.

 

[Athlai]

Taylor and Gillespie aren't ODI specialists. They just had ODI debuts before their test ones, Gillespie for example has a great FC record, much better than his OD one, and Taylor is a genuine talent who should succeed at test level.

Eventually.

 

[Athlai]

On to the ODI's. NZ team

Vincent
How
Taylor
Styris
Sinclair
Oram (If fit)
McCullum
Vettori
Mills
Gillespie
Martin (there might be someone else, but I can't remember...)

Jeeves

 

[NZTailender]

Sigh, a horrible end to a horrible series. Steyn killed us in the end, gun bowling effort by him. Interesting to note that apart from Steyn, Amla and Kallis, the South African performances were about par with New Zealands. Smith averaged LESS than Papps for this series.

However, it shows that when New Zealand needs at least 3 players to stand up and make a difference in a match, it doesn't happen. We get 1 player standing up in one innings (Fleming) and one in another (Gillespie bowling) but they don't get any back up. We need at least 2 batsmen to do something. Look at South Afirca. Only two batsmen dominated us! That was the difference. Not 7 batsmem, just 2. And 1 bowler who was on absolute fire. We didn't have a Steyn in our team this series and he was well backed up by the rest of the Saffie bowlers who chipped in for a few wickets each.
It just shows that we missed Bond and Franklin a lot. Possibly Peter Fulton too, but we'll never know if he could've made a difference like Kallis or Amla. We needed Sinclair.


Onto the ODI series. Our chances should be 'better' but I'm very skeptical. No Oram, Fulton, Bond or Franklin, players who have been very good for us in ODI's recently. Instead we have Martin - MARTIN - replacing Bond, or Franklin, in ODI's. He impressed me a lot in this test series but a ODI bowler he ain't. Gillespie is hit or miss in ODI's but at least we have Kyle Mills. IMO Patel HAS to play.

What I'd like to see picked for the ODI series, out of the current squad:

1. How
2. Vincent
3. Styris
4. Taylor
5. Hopkins
6. McCullum
7. Vettori
8. Mills
9. Patel
10. Gillespie
11. Mason

I'm not sure if Oram is available for the ODI series, otherwise he'd be a swap for Hopkins.

 

[Athlai]

What I'd like to see picked for the ODI series, out of the current squad:

1. How
2. Vincent
3. Styris
4. Taylor
5. Hopkins
6. McCullum
7. Vettori
8. Mills
9. Patel
10. Gillespie
11. Mason

I'm not sure if Oram is available for the ODI series, otherwise he'd be a swap for Hopkins.

Gillespie and Mason better with the bat than Patel IMO.

 

[Fiery]

Gillespie and Mason better with the bat than Patel IMO.

Debatable. I've seen Patel play some classic shots

 

[Athlai]

Debatable. I've seen Patel play some classic shots

My signature lays memory to the fact he is a fantastic number 11 batsmen, yet Michael the 'Mug' Mason and Gillespie both appear to average a bit more with the bat due to some seriously talented french cutting ability.

 

[Fiery]

My signature lays memory to the fact he is a fantastic number 11 batsmen, yet Michael the 'Mug' Mason and Gillespie both appear to average a bit more with the bat due to some seriously talented french cutting ability.

True. Opposition teams don't appear to have figured that out yet

 

[Smudge]

I thankfully saw none of this series, but all I'll say is we waited this long for test cricket involving NZ and we get this load of rubbish?

I'm taking up lawn bowls this summer.