**Official** New Zealand in England

[Richard]

That was a brainless stroke from Mills. Utterly stupid. Against the spin, on a bouncy track, with O'Brien not looking too bad.

Now it's presumably just a case of getting one of these two. Surely if Flynn was going to bat he'd have batted by now.

 

[Top 6 on paper]

Flynn's a friggin wimp. Pathetic.

 

[Richard]

Nah, you'd be surprised what a bad sickness does.

OK, Sidebottom gets rid of O'Brien caught mid-off. That's 294 to win. Unlikely, but more possible that I'd thought likely at the commencement of this innings.

 

[Nate]

294 to win then. Supersub Patel in IMO.

 

[PY]

Flynn's a friggin wimp. Pathetic.

Haha, is that because you have an inside view into what's wrong with him?

 

[Days of Grace]

Would just love to know the 3rd innings batting average for NZ has been for the past 4 years.

 

[99*]

So England need 294 to win. Still think NZ have the best chance, but would not be at all shocked to watch us **** this up and give England a gift.

 

[GGG]

Flynn's a friggin wimp. Pathetic.

QFT, the old timers would still bat with broken legs and arms, people today in general are soft.

 

[Top 6 on paper]

QFT, the old timers would still bat with broken legs and arms, people today in general are soft.

He may well end up costing NZ the match. Chickening out once is one thing, but twice 48 hours later?

Let the side down. Should never be selected again.

 

[Richard]

Honestly.

 

[PhoenixFire]

He may well end up costing NZ the match. Chickening out once is one thing, but twice 48 hours later?

Let the side down. Should never be selected again.

 

[Richard]

QFT, the old timers would still bat with broken legs and arms, people today in general are soft.

More accurately, people today are more sensible than in earlier times, and realise that if you do things to make injury\illness worse, it makes it worse. Fortunately we've now seen the light that expecting people to bat with broken-legs or dehydrated for the sake of a game of cricket is not even remotely close to being good enough.

 

[Richard]

Would just love to know the 3rd innings batting average for NZ has been for the past 4 years.

Excluding declaration innings', 202. And this is after 336 in the first of these. Thereafter, the best is 272 and the average, unsurprisingly, below 200.

 

[aussie]

Good recovery from England Monty, will decide whether i'll go down to the ground depending on England's start.

 

[PhoenixFire]

We need 293 to win, I reckon it is very do-able, but unlikely. NZ still favourites IMO.

 

[Richard]

...

Haha, ITSTL. I did loosely consider the chance this was SW\BLE, but not terribly so... looks like I should have!

 

[PhoenixFire]

Yes you should have indeed, has all the hallmarks.

 

[Richard]

We need 293 to win, I reckon it is very do-able, but unlikely. NZ still favourites IMO.

I reckon it's a very slim chance TBH. Feels good right now after having just bowled NZ out for next to nothing, but if we're to stand any chance at all we'll have to get through this burst from the seamers, and that in itself will be no tea-party to do.

Anyway, that's the account opened with a leg-bye. Strauss and Cook both still to get off-the-mark.

 

[PhoenixFire]

I reckon one of the top 6, most likely to be Vaughan, will need to get 100 if we are in with a chance. I really want Pietersen to make runs this test, seems like yonks since he last played well.

 

[Days of Grace]

NZ 3rd innings' batting average since playing SA in 2004 at Wellington is 21.89 per wicket.

They have played 16 matches in that time, batting 1st and 3rd, and have won just 2 of them, and losing 9.