***Official*** New Zealand Domestic Season 2008/09

[Bahnz]

If he makes his 2nd ton, I wonder whether that would make him the youngest NZ first class player to score 2 hundreds in a match.

 

[Blakey]

Fail

 

[Smudge]

Sorry, I knew you would notice.

And your point was?

 

[Blakey]

And your point was?

To see if I was right or I was wrong.

 

[superkingdave]

Auckland getting to the final..is that a bit of a surprise? Thought they weren't much fancied at the start of the season? Interesting to see Steven Croft opening in that last game

 

[Athlai]

NZ Openers this season
(Auck)MJ Guptill 10, 148, 14, 48 @ 55
(Auck, NZ, NZA)TG McIntosh 140, 9, 1, 8, 191, 78, 34, 24*,136,3, 3 , 0, 31 , 74, 12, 0 @ 50
(NZ, NZA, CD) JM How 170, 0, 14, 0, 16, 28,10, 10, 12, 54 190*, 0, 8, 18, 0 @ 38.22
(Ot, NZ) AJ Redmond 5, 13, 3, 10, 83, 19, 50, 1, 4, 55, 76, 28 @ 28.92


(Ot)CD Cumming 85, 31, 133, 1, 105, 58 , 29, 4, 45, 118 @ 60.9
(CD)PJ Ingram 37, 1, 247, 33, 51, 40, 34, 43, 24, 13 @ 52.30
(Well)MD Bell 146, 122, 3, 75 , 0, 1, 25, 60, 30 @ 51.33
(Cant)MHW Papps 14, 26, 16, 40, 53, 35 , 127, 9*, 11, 128, 54, 33*@
(Auck)SJ Croft 41 @ 41
(Ot)LJ Morgan 54, 18 @ 36
(Ot)SB Haig 52, 28*, 0, 27 @ 35.67
(ND)BS Wilson 36, 1, 62, 12 , 109, 24, 0@ 34.86
(ND)BJ Watling 21, 40, 2, 111, 19, 14 @ 34.5
(Auck)RA Jones 28, 22, 5, 25, 69, 18, 9, 0, 0 , 102, 62 @ 30.91
(Well)JM Brodie 40, 2, 110, 23, 32 , 17, 23, 12, 5 @ 29.25
(CD)GH Worker 24, 27, 11, 22, 21, 28, 24, 50, 36 @ 27
(ND)HJH Marshall 38, 6 @ 22
(ND)CJ Merchant 0, 25, 89, 7, 10, 16, 9, 15 @ 21.38
(Cant) AM Ellis 12, 29 @ 20.5
(Cant)TD Astle 0, 23, 1, 26, 4, 29, 23, 101, 29 , 0, 18, 0, 0, 0 @ 18.57
(Ot)HD Rutherford 0, 31, 0, 2, 5, 37 @ 12.5
(ND) AP Devcich 14, 16, 4 @ 11.33

Top Openers in the country:
Guptill
McIntosh
Cumming
Ingram
Bell
Papps
How

And I'm only sure about one of those guys. If we go by career records:

Guptill 951 @ 28.81 (22 years old)
McIntosh 4377 @ 34.46 (29 years old)
Cumming 6522 @ 34.69 (33 years old)
Ingram 3005 @ 31.96 (30 years old)
Bell 9387 @ 37.25 (32 years old)
Papps 5809 @ 35.85 (29 years old)
How 4480 @ 35 (27 years old)

Now lets rank them by current form/career record/age:

Form:
1Cumming
2Guptill
3Ingram
4Papps
5Bell
6McIntosh
7How

Record:
1Bell
2Papps
3How
4Cumming
5McIntosh
6Ingram
7Guptill

Age:
1Guptill
2How
3McIntosh/Papps
5Ingram
6Bell
7Cumming


Now of course some exceptions must be made, such as how McIntosh, How and Guptill's recent form has been altered by it being against Test Class teams. For sake of ease in regard to this I shall minus a point from all of their overall scores (and in McIntoshs case 2 points considering how close his recent form is to the others regardless of this).

Overall:
Guptill - 9
Papps - 9
How - 11
McIntosh - 12
Cumming - 12
Bell - 13
Ingram - 14

Now it should strike you that all of these men besides Ingram have a Test cap (and Ingram according to my little rankings is also 5th away from being in the squad so is unlikely to ever get one). Yet none have had real success as of yet in Test cricket if we account for those statistics too how does this alter the final table? (Sorry Pinga)

Test Record

1McIntosh 209 @ 41.80
2Guptill 62 @ 31
3Cumming 441 @ 25.94
4Bell 729 @ 24.30
5How 771 @ 23.36
6Papps 246 @ 16.40

(How will be placed 4th ahead of Bell due to Bells record only edging him out due to success vs. Bangladesh)
Final Table:

Guptill - 11
McIntosh - 13
Cumming - 15
How - 15
Papps - 15
Bell - 17

Ah so thats what the selectors must be thinking.

 

[Flem274*]

Haha, all that effort to find out we.................................already have the right combination.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

(How will be placed 4th ahead of Bell due to Bells record only edging him out due to success vs. Bangladesh)

So, you'll rule out Bell's runs against Bangladesh, but not McIntosh's hundred where he was dropped by the West Indies (aka the most comical drop of all time)? Interesting, interesting.

 

[Howsie]

Sorry, I knew you would notice.

Kane is having a good second innings to go with his first.

Williamson was one of the only ND boys to turn up for that game, I can't believe how bad they preformed. We need Watling back, and get rid of Greame Aldridge.

 

[Athlai]

So, you'll rule out Bell's runs against Bangladesh, but not McIntosh's hundred where he was dropped by the West Indies (aka the most comical drop of all time)? Interesting, interesting.

Fair call, (especially as I don't rate McIntosh) I just want Cumming or How to open TBH.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Fair call, (especially as I don't rate McIntosh) I just want Cumming or How to open TBH.

Hmmmm. I'd rather Pingham opens rather than How. How must be the most over-rated Kiwi opener. Just because he has the ability to middle the ball it seems. The fact that he middles the ball straight into a fielder's (quite often point?) hands is often over looked.

 

[Athlai]

I did the whole analysis to figure out if we actually had any potential solutions to the opening problem, which sadly it seems like besides some hope for Guptill we do not.

Really we're looking at the best of a bad lot, a player who will occupy the position till someone better comes along and takes it from them. But will hopefully average 28-35 and be relatively solid.

A solution to this could be to swap the players around against the attacks which exploit their weaknesses. So don't play Cumming against South Africa, and play How against England.

I think a guy like Pinga would have great success against the teams which don't have a strike bowler like Steyn or Johnson who can get some movement with a ball going 145km/h, as he has that ability to dig in and nudge the ball around. Yet against a true strike bowler that ability will be entirely redundant when he's out 3 from 22.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

So, basically we're ****ed for openers against Aussies, Yarpies and Indiannies.

 

[African Monkey]

Hmmmm. I'd rather Pingham opens rather than How. How must be the most over-rated Kiwi opener. Just because he has the ability to middle the ball it seems. The fact that he middles the ball straight into a fielder's (quite often point?) hands is often over looked.

I agree on How. His technique looks good but the fact is that he goes very hard at the ball and gets caught behind a lot.

 

[Athlai]

So, basically we're ****ed for openers against Aussies, Yarpies and Indiannies.

Yeah pretty much. Though I'd say How is our best bet against them. Sure he won't last long most of the time but he's most likely to hit them around a bit, Bell, Pinga and McIntosh just pace their innings in a way that their ability would be exploited by against those 3.

Papps,Cumming or How then?

Though maybe Watling will come good in a big way next season.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Not Papps. He's one short ball away from being the Kiwi Mark Vermuelen.

 

[African Monkey]

I say stick with the openers we currently have. No-one else will do any better.

 

[Athlai]

Not Papps. He's one short ball away from being the Kiwi Mark Vermuelen.

Cumming or How, How against South Africa, England.
Pinga against West Indies/Bangladesh though

 

[Flem274*]

The can play a pull and move their feet though (unless its Pinga, who can only pull).

On Pinga, tbh he's ODI material only if I'm honest. He'd just be a better Mcintosh (that scores faster) in test matches. Relies too heavily on his awesome eye and nothing else.

Has an awesome eye though.

How's run atm seems to be 5 little scores followed by 150+.

I like Cumming, always have, but he gets out LBW virtualy every innings.

Papps is Papps.

Redmond will make a 50 and nothing else per series.

Watling is pure hope.

Bell is a slab of concrete waving a stick.

 

[NZTailender]

McIntosh and Guptill LH RH combination should be persisted with for at least the rest of the series.