**Official** New Zealand in England

[social]

Afzaal has done nothing but score runs in one-day cricket for 10 of the last 11 years. Only once has he averaged under 30 for a one-day season; FFS, only 3 other times has he averaged under 40.

That's 6 seasons out of 11 averaging over 40, and averaging in the 30s for another 3 in between. What more is someone supposed to do? It's absolutely criminal some of the jokers who've been picked ahead of him in recent times.

Now I have heard it all

Afzaal is an extremely average fc cricketer that was incredibly lucky to get a game at the highest level.

Fortunately, he did everyone a favour by carrying on like such a pork chop when he scored 50 on a road that he was marked never to play again

Good riddance - ffs there must be someone better on the cc scene than that joker

 

[Richard]

Hahaha, I've always known about your simplistic First-Class-and-one-day-cricket-are-the-same-thing mantra, but it always astonishes me every time it rears its head again.

Here's the correct version of what you were trying to say:

Afzaal is an extremely average FC cricketer that was incredibly lucky to get a game at the Test level. This, of course, means precisely zero when it comes to considering him for one-day internationals.

Good riddance - ffs there must be someone better on the CC scene than that joker. Of course, we must remember that the CC means zero when it comes to picking players for ODIs as the Championship isn't one-day cricket.

 

[social]

Hahaha, I've always known about your simplistic First-Class-and-one-day-cricket-are-the-same-thing mantra, but it always astonishes me every time it rears its head again.

Here's the correct version of what you were trying to say:

Sorry, I've seen him bat and like his previous county said - "good riddance"

 

[Richard]

I've seen him bat a good few times too - and not just in a Test in which he was out-of-depth either. Do you know the reasons he left Northants and Notts, BTW?

 

[Flem274*]

Yes, Fulton gets 50.

Marshall should get the series though. No one is an amazing player after two tests. Drop the useless **** after he adds the final nail to his coffin in the third test with a pair of ducks.

For the ODI sides I would like to see:

NZ

McCullum
How
Taylor
Fulton
Styris
Oram
Flynn
Vettori
Mills
Southee
Mason

England

Cook
Joyce/Bell
Azfaal
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Read
Mascarenhas
Broad
Sidebottom
Lewis

Seriously, **** Anderson in ODIs. John Lewis is a decent bowler, give him a crack. Picking Anderson is a good way to concde 300. Read won't play but I still want him to. If not Read then Ambrose. Is Flintoff going to be available for the ODIs? I can't remember. If he isn't then Shah or Bopara goes in.

 

[Swervy]

I've seen him bat a good few times too - and not just in a Test in which he was out-of-depth either. Do you know the reasons he left Northants and Notts, BTW?

coz he can only bat on roads?

 

[Richard]

Nope.

 

[Richard]

For the ODI sides I would like to see:

NZ

McCullum
How
Taylor
Fulton
Styris
Oram
Flynn
Vettori
Mills
Southee
Mason

England

Cook
Joyce/Bell
Azfaal
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Read
Mascarenhas
Broad
Sidebottom
Lewis

Seriously, **** Anderson in ODIs. John Lewis is a decent bowler, give him a crack. Picking Anderson is a good way to concde 300. Read won't play but I still want him to. If not Read then Ambrose. Is Flintoff going to be available for the ODIs? I can't remember. If he isn't then Shah or Bopara goes in.

Nah, Flintoff isn't in the squad. Nor Read, sadly - and given he's played in the ICL it'll be a long-shot to ever see him in the red-and-blue again.

As for Jonathan Lewis - he's a decent bowler, yeah, but he's also now too old to be playing ODIs for my money. He's highly unlikely to still be all that good in 2010/11. So I don't want him to play again.

BTW, can't see Ed Joyce playing ODIs again either - and if he does I certainly hope he never opens the batting again.

 

[social]

I've seen him bat a good few times too - and not just in a Test in which he was out-of-depth either. Do you know the reasons he left Northants and Notts, BTW?

Yeah, horrible last season

 

[Richard]

Nope. Horrible season in the Championship. Nothing to do with his lack of one-day skills - they just wanted someone who could do well in both game-forms.

Afzaal's never had a horrible one-day season since becoming an established player.

 

[social]

Nope. Horrible season in the Championship. Nothing to do with his lack of one-day skills - they just wanted someone who could do well in both game-forms.

Afzaal's never had a horrible one-day season since becoming an established player.

Richard

The guy is apparently a complete prat whose mouth has destroyed an average career

He's got no chance of playing for Eng again

 

[Richard]

He may indeed have no chance of playing for England for the first time (he's never played a ODI before), but that's nothing to do with the fact there are better players around than him - because there aren't. Kevin Pietersen is the only better OD batsman than Afzaal in this country that hasn't retired from ODIs.

 

[Woodster]

Mustard has struggled in one-day cricket so far this season which must obviously have been part of the reason for his omission, although I am slightly disappointed he wasn't selected, as said previously, for continuity purposes.

 

[Blakey]

He isn't though. He's actually a pretty awful one day bowler. I agree it was quite a strange reason for Leslie1 to leave him out, but I wouldn't have him in there anyway.

I know, just saying his logic is flawed.

 

[Blakey]

I bet you wish you had someone of McCullum's elk in your ODI lineup. That's probably where NZ has the legs up on England atm. The openers. Note: I actually think if Marshall scores less than Fulton in this game he should be dropped for the 3rd test for Fulton.

Are you suggesting the secret to McCullums batting is that he plays on four legs?

 

[Leslie1]

Breaking up the continuity of selection chat a bit... but I thought this article is interesting...

Helmet is safe, says maker

Daniel Flynn's fearful facial injury when he had a tooth knocked out batting in the second cricket test for New Zealand against England could have been avoided had he worn his helmet properly.

...
Mead said players often took little notice of the correct settings for wearing helmets, with the grille having several levels that could be adjusted.

"They just think wearing a helmet makes them all right."

He wants to see more attention paid by players to wearing protective gear properly.

He said at least Flynn had kept his eye on the ball when other batsman in recent days, like Jacob Oram and West Indies player Shivna-rine Chanderpaul, had not.

-----------------------------------------------

I think it's precisely because he kept his eye on the ball that the ball hits him straight in the face?

 

[Richard]

People failing to follow safety guidelines happens every day of every week on countless thousands of occasions.

On almost all of these occasions it doesn't matter. However, inevitably there'll be 1 or 2 times when it costs dearly.

Think on, too - after being struck by Lee in the recently-concluded Test, Chanderpaul was OK. Just. Had that ball hit him a tiny fraction lower he could conceivably have been killed, or parylised. Compared to a tooth being knocked out - which is admittedly horrible - that's very, very, very serious.

 

[_Ed_]

Great to see Redmond get another ton...I know he can do it in Tests too. Come on Aaron, prove me right at Trent Bridge.

 

[NZTailender]

Great to see Redmond get another ton...I know he can do it in Tests too. Come on Aaron, prove me right at Trent Bridge.

AWTA. I like Redmond, I really do. Hopefully he can post a big score in the test.

 

[FBU]

Mascarenhas is a much better one-day bowler than Anderson or Broad, though. Strike-rate isn't particularly important in one-day cricket, economy-rate is the main factor.

In his 10 innings he has only bowled his full quota 4 times. For an economical bowler I would expect the captain to use him far more than that. Mascarenhas has said when Flintoff comes back he expects to drop out.