I think this match counts for nothing when looking at how a batsman is performing. It was obviously a difficult pitch to play on demonstrated by both teams low scores.
It certainly wasn't an easy pitch to bat on against the seamers, but that doesn't mean most batsmen weren't at fault for their dismissal on both sides. The only batsmen all day who were genuinely got out in any way were Wright and Shah (who are both crap anyway, though admittedly the former rather more so than the latter).
McCullum - decent ball that he didn't elevate enough and you'd expect him to do so really.
How - crap ball that he'd smash 29 times out of 30 or so.
Styris - harmless short delivery that he somehow managed to glove.
Taylor - straight ball, missed.
Flynn - woeful Full-Toss that he somehow managed to sky.
Hopkins - first a short ball cut to point and dropped, then another short ball pulled to fine-leg.
Vettori - first a harmless ball outside off that he somehow edged and was dropped, then another harmless ball that he simply gave catching practice to long-on.
Elliott, Southee and Mills - obviously just skying ones when the slog was on, fair enough, that happens.
Pietersen - poor ball, would put away 29 times out of 30 if not more, somehow straight to mid-wicket.
Bell - woeful ball, managed to hit straight to point.
Bopara - basically exactly the same as Bell.
Ambrose - played at one he should've left under those circumstances.
Swann - read Pietersen
Collingwood - straight ball, missed.
Broad - caught down leg-side, always poor.
Tremlett - skying one when the game was almost up, obviously no real expectations there anyway.
Really, there was one hell of a lot of very, very, very poor batting yesterday. Yes, the bowling was in areas that made scoring difficult quite often, and if the wickets had come from decent (if not wicket-taking) balls you could say fair enough. But so many of them came from out-and-out
bad deliveries. Had the batting been good on both sides, we might well have seen 250+ scores against that sort of bowling.
Thing is, though, many of these players have done little or nothing to suggest they're good ODI batsmen either yet or recently. How (basically 3 excellent knocks in 13 and little besides), Styris (recent form very poor), Flynn, Hopkins, Bell and Bopara fit this description. Plus Wright and Shah who were genuinely got out by good deliveries. Then there were some tailenders \ lower-order batsmen (Vettori, Swann, Broad) who are obviously not people who you can expect runs from regularly even though they're not hopeless.
Only Pietersen and Taylor are class ODI batsmen who should be doing far better than their abysmal dismissals yesterday.
