**Official** England in New Zealand

[Perm]

Probably put this in the official thread.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Mustard 22 off 41

Cringe every time I see the bloke has opened, itbt. Did they learn nothing from Prior?

 

[Perm]

****ing hate these 13 a side games.

 

[Richard]

Yeah, waste of time really. Might as well just put 10 fielders on the park and give each batsman an allocation of X deliveries\overs to bat, however many times he gets out, and not even bother scoring.

No point in keeping scores unless those scores matter in some way, which in a 13-a-side game they don't. At all.

 

[Silver Arrow]

Scott Styris today announced his retirement from Test and First Class cricket to focus on ODI and Twenty20 cricket with the 2011 World Cup in India as his end goal.

“The rigours of international cricket have become increasingly demanding and I would like to extend my career by focusing on shorter versions of the game,” he said.

“I had originally planned to retire from Test cricket at the end of The National Bank Series, but decided to bring the decision forward out of fairness to the selectors and other players.

 

[NZTailender]

Interesting, interesting. Pity he had to end it on a low note really but certainly a selfless thing to do, especially with a few batsmen waiting in the wings.

 

[NUFAN]

LOL at focusing on Twenty20..

 

[Matt52]

LOL at focusing on Twenty20..

Apparently he wants a bigger pay packet from the indian league. They start bidding for him in a few weeks so by doing this he has more time to play 20/20 in india and thus he might get a better deal

 

[Flem274*]

Scott Styris today announced his retirement from Test and First Class cricket to focus on ODI and Twenty20 cricket with the 2011 World Cup in India as his end goal.

“The rigours of international cricket have become increasingly demanding and I would like to extend my career by focusing on shorter versions of the game,” he said.

“I had originally planned to retire from Test cricket at the end of The National Bank Series, but decided to bring the decision forward out of fairness to the selectors and other players.

Good stuff. Liked him as a test player but sadly he has declined in the test format but has always been a force in one day cricket and he would be very valuable in the 2011 WC. If you minus off the games he played as a bowling allrounder and only take note of the games where he's been a batting allrounder/batsman his average climbs alot IIRC.

 

[Perm]

Really rate Styris, very fine Test and ODI batsmen. Doesn't get the credit he deserves in the ODI arena, where he has been one of New Zealand's best ever. A real shame he had to announce it like this, without getting a farewell Test or series, but he probably didn't want to left out of the Test side for the English series, which would have been likely.

 

[Flem274*]

Really rate Styris, very fine Test and ODI batsmen. Doesn't get the credit he deserves in the ODI arena, where he has been one of New Zealand's best ever. A real shame he had to announce it like this, without getting a farewell Test or series, but he probably didn't want to left out of the Test side for the English series, which would have been likely.

He had a decent chance of a recall TBH. The selectors may have made up another reason for dropping Sinclair for the test team and Ryder if he failed in the one dayers (which is likely considering his record) probably would not have made it and they don't seem to rate Taylor in tests (wise move) and Vincent has been dropped so he had a fair chance of a recall.

My biggest worry for the tests now is that Taylor will get a call up. He's not good enough, it doesn't matter how much talent you have if your FC average is fairly average with an average inflating double hundred and a technique, temperament and style of play that is unsuited to test cricket, especially now he seems to have degenerated into many premeditated slogs, you won't be a success. I'd like to see those areas improve before a recall.

Ryder is likely to suffer from a poor one day series and as a result won't get his chance in the format he is best suited to, tests. Vincent will really need to get cracking in FC cricket to earn a recall. The selectors drop and recall Sinclair like a hot potato so he's doubtful.

So in short, Styris was likely to be the man for the job.

 

[NZTailender]

Not really. I doubt any one of Fleming, Fulton, Sinclair or Oram would've been dropped from the middle order; I imagine they'll be wanting to keep the same batting side they had against Bangladesh before making any changes.

 

[Shoggz]

Let's hope young master Cook can take his form (138* from 140 balls today) from these two games into the ODI series.

Yes I know these were only warm up games, but how often previously have we seen England slip up in games like these?

There's even speculation about his inclusion in the team for the Twenty20 games now..

 

[Prince EWS]

Not really. I doubt any one of Fleming, Fulton, Sinclair or Oram would've been dropped from the middle order; I imagine they'll be wanting to keep the same batting side they had against Bangladesh before making any changes.

Yeah, you need a spare batsman in the squad though. Styris would have been useful in that role.

 

[Flem274*]

Let's hope young master Cook can take his form (138* from 140 balls today) from these two games into the ODI series.

Yes I know these were only warm up games, but how often previously have we seen England slip up in games like these?

There's even speculation about his inclusion in the team for the Twenty20 games now..

Not wanting to put a downer on things but that wasn't the greatest Canterbury team to take the field. They're languishing down the bottom of the List A table. Would prefer England Played Central Districts or Auckland as they are the two best and most talented sides this season and are stacked with Black Caps. That would be a better warm up for the England boys IMO.

 

[Richard]

Doesn't really matter who they're playing if they're 13-a-side.

 

[cover drive man]

Looking forward to this tbh. Btw I made the "official" England in New Zealand thread a while ago. Oh well this ones ok.

 

[Richard]

It was merged. James started this way back last July.

 

[cover drive man]

It was merged. James started this way back last July.

Oh

 

[thedarkmullet]

I'm going along tonight, hoping for a big crowd with the holiday tomorrow. Hopfully the it gets somewhere near that of the Chappel-Hadlee last year, the atmosphere there was amazing.