**Official** New Zealand in England

[sportychic33]

His balls?

In a manner of speaking yes, the balls of his feet.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Tudor certainly would if he bowled as he can more often.

That is, if he could last a whole season to allow himself a chance of bowling as he can.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

What about Stuart Turner?

Norbert Phillip was one that escaped my earlier thoughts to be honest.

Turner was a bit before my time. As I recall, he'd moved on to Cambridgeshire by the time I arrived on English soil. I can vaguely recall that he took 10 wickets in an innings (for about 10 or 11 runs) in the Minor County championship against a Northern county. It seems, even at the age of 40+ he was a class above the majority of minor county players.

EDIT: It was this game. Check out Turner's figures. http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/95/95010.html 13.3-10-11-10
EDIT 2: And he was 44 years old at the time.

 

[Richard]

But he doesn't, and as a result there's not necessarily any reason to believe he was bowling at his best yesterday - as the fact that he was hit for 5.11 per over may suggest.

Even when offering a threat, Tudor has sometimes been expensive. There honestly is virtually no way of telling how well he bowled unless you watched all or most of his deliveries.

Some bowlers you can generally judge how well they bowled purely by their figures, but Tudor is not one of them.

 

[Richard]

Exactly, if everyone bowled as well as they could each team'd be sensational. The ability to utilise the skills you have is one of the facets each player has to master. If he can't, then he's not good enough.

Not sure you entirely grasped what I was saying. I'm not saying Tudor is good enough - he's, unfortunately, shown not to be. But nonetheless, there's still the odd spell here and there where he can offer a massive threat. Who knows - maybe yesterday might have been one such spell.

That is, if he could last a whole season to allow himself a chance of bowling as he can.

That too, of course, but the Mark Nicholas maxim of "when Tudor plays, he bowls well" isn't entirely true.

 

[Flem274*]

You know, I reckon if there weren't two innings though still five days, we wouldn't be too bad in tests. I bet if they had two innings one day games (if such a thing were possible with the time constraints) we'd plumment down the rankings.

 

[Richard]

Well, the Essex-NZ game finishes in a fairly comfortable victory for NZ, by 92 runs. More disappointingly, 2 of the wickets go to Aaron Redmond, and just 1 each to Mills and Oram. Still, only Mason of the bowlers in this match has really enhanced his pedigree, taking 37-101-7. O'Brien gets 37.1-100-6, mind. But for a match where only James Marshall of the batsmen (note: batsmen - which Mills, for all his decent lower-order play, promotion to number-three in a Test-match and one-time First-Class average over 40, is not) passed 50, that has to be a little disappointing.

 

[NZTailender]

Well, the Essex-NZ game finishes in a fairly comfortable victory for NZ, by 92 runs. More disappointingly, 2 of the wickets go to Aaron Redmond, and just 1 each to Mills and Oram. Still, only Mason of the bowlers in this match has really enhanced his pedigree, taking 37-101-7. O'Brien gets 37.1-100-6, mind. But for a match where only James Marshall of the batsmen (note: batsmen - which Mills, for all his decent lower-order play, promotion to number-three in a Test-match and one-time First-Class average over 40, is not) passed 50, that has to be a little disappointing.

Redmond is a handy part time spin bowler, and will fit nicely into the bowling attack option now that Styris and Astle have both retired. Being a spin bowler, it's a bonus, as far as variety and the pitch goes (if it suddenly takes spin).

Naturally, you want your main bowers taking all the wickets, but they were given enough overs - Remond was given just six and managed two wickets. If he can do that in a test matc, I'd be more than happy.


If anything is to go on as far as the Kiwi bowling performance in this match goes is that Mills and Oram are obvious picks for the first test, while Mason and O'Brien are battling it our for reserve seamer or playing instead of Southee.

 

[Richard]

Redmond is a handy part time spin bowler, and will fit nicely into the bowling attack option now that Styris and Astle have both retired. Being a spin bowler, it's a bonus, as far as variety and the pitch goes (if it suddenly takes spin).

Naturally, you want your main bowers taking all the wickets, but they were given enough overs - Remond was given just six and managed two wickets. If he can do that in a test matc, I'd be more than happy.

Yeah, but in a warm-up you want it more than ever, as this is where individual performance counts more than the result. In Tests, all wickets are the team's, but in tour-games, all wickets that don't go to a bowler are wastes of potential confidence-boosters.

Redmond's obviously not the worst bowler, he's got not far short of 100 First-Class wickets. But I won't be losing too much sleep over him TBH. (*cue him taking 6-40 in one of the Tests*)

 

[Leslie1]

Great discussions guys. Redmond and Vettori together in a test lineup is a boost for us if he can repeat this + batting well. There might not be anymore need for having two specialist spinners at the expense of a batsman.

Can we say MOTM James Marshall? This looks like a seamers' wicket, and while Mason and O Brien claim the honors, whether Martin and Southee would have done well too on this pitch.

Pressure's now on Southee to perform in the Lions' game if he doesn't want to get pushed out by Mason + O Brien. Mills and Martin still the main bowlers for me.

 

[Richard]

You don't often get MOTM awards awarded in tour-games, but you'd have to say Marshall would be the only candidate here if they were done so.

 

[Days of Grace]

Pressure's now on Southee to perform in the Lions' game if he doesn't want to get pushed out by Mason + O Brien. Mills and Martin still the main bowlers for me.

I would say that the pressure is on Martin also for this next game. He may be the senior bowler, but if he doesn't perform whilst O'Brien/Mason (whoever plays) gets a bag, then I could very well see him losing his place for the first test.

 

[Nutter]

I would say that the pressure is on Martin also for this next game. He may be the senior bowler, but if he doesn't perform whilst O'Brien/Mason (whoever plays) gets a bag, then I could very well see him losing his place for the first test.

I think the selectors will stick with Martin, but he seriously better get some wickets soon. Hope Mills gets a decent bag as well.

 

[Natman20]

I think Mason, Martin, Mills attack or else Martin, Mills, Southee or else Patel to slot in.

 

[Spitfires_Fan]

Fair play to Ravi Bopara for turning down the IPL in order to keep himself in the frame for England - he's had a great start to the season and I'm sure that the selectors will be impressed by his loyalty and desire to play for his country.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7385442.stm

 

[Flem274*]

Martin and Mills are certainties and so they should be. Both have proven that when they're in form they can get bags of wickets and both are reliable enough on any pitch when they're not in the best of form. Its Southee vs Mason IMO unless its spinning then Patel should be considered.

When Franklin returns and shows some form and fitness then he should logically slot in ahead of Mason and Southee. I'd have him as the first seamer on the team sheet. If Martin or Mills have shown awful figures worthy of being dropped and a fringe player (Southee, Mason, Gillespie) is gunning it then its a fair change. I'd like to see some continuity though, especially when we get alot of chopping and changing through injury anyway.

 

[Richard]

Fair play to Ravi Bopara for turning down the IPL in order to keep himself in the frame for England - he's had a great start to the season and I'm sure that the selectors will be impressed by his loyalty and desire to play for his country.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7385442.stm

Not sure, but hasn't every English player turned-down the IPL for now?

 

[Goughy]

Fair play to Ravi Bopara for turning down the IPL in order to keep himself in the frame for England - he's had a great start to the season and I'm sure that the selectors will be impressed by his loyalty and desire to play for his country.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7385442.stm

Like most things surrounding this venture the info is cloudy and speculative.

If its true then I think he has made a mistake as he shouldnt be close to the England side at the moment. But then again I think its stupid to offer a player like him the money reported.

 

[Shoggz]

I can't say that I'm overly impressed with the form of ANY of the current English top 6 going into the first test.

The only one who has managed a century is Andrew Strauss in a one day game.

The rest have looked decidedly scratchy. (Michael Vaughan has made about 90 runs in 6 innings!)

Of course, if they all hit form next week I won't be complaining..

 

[Richard]

No indeed.

Strauss as pointed-out has done little in the First-Class game, and he's got in and got out at least a couple of times too.
Cook hasn't exactly played much, and you can't really expect someone to hit instant form.
Vaughan has gone pretty similar to Strauss.
Pietersen has gone pretty similar to Cook.
Collingwood hasn't batted yet.
Bell has done OK but hasn't made any really big scores.
Ambrose has done pretty well.
Flintoff has not.
Broad has done OK.

Which isn't confidence-inspiring. We wait and see with not a little apprehension.