*Official* New Zealand in Sri Lanka

[aravinda1234]

If Taylor gets out to the slog sweep I'm swimming to Sri Lanka with a baseball bat.

 

[aravinda1234]

Yep, Patelitharan to tear through them.

I'm new to CricketWeb. It seems I can enjoy my time here.

 

[Nishan]

HOW good has Dilshan been recently? Okay, he was always a decent middle-order batsman, but this year has been quite a purple patch. Has he changed his technique, or is it mostly attitude?

Early front runner for Batsman of the year at ICC awards. It doesnt seem like he has changed his technique. He probably has had few hard looks at himslef at the mirror and decided to put pay to his talents.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, Dilshan's been incredible in all forms for a while now. I think it all started with his aggressive big hundreds in the tests against Bangladesh last year. Fantastic to watch too IMO.

 

[Hurricane]

I am searching for answers.

I am jealous/envious of Sri Lanka's batsman. I wish we had one or two of them in our team. Our team would be so much better with Dilshan or Samaraweera in there.

The trouble with our team is that our country has such a small population and limited player depth. So all of these retirements of a couple of years ago have hurt us more than they would any other country. Why did Craig McMillan have to retire I thought he was good.

Couldn't Fleming have played for a few more seasons.

With those two in the team we would be a decent side. We should nurture our elite players and do whatever it takes to make them happy and secure in the top team so that they can play until they are like 38 or something. I realise this is past the useful shelf life of most players but perhaps in the last few years they could just play tests and not any ODIs.

Anyways I am desperately searching for solutions

I was overseas and away from New Zealand during the mid and late nineties during the years of Chris Cairns and company. Were we more competitive then? How long have we been ranked 7th for?

 

[Uppercut]

I am searching for answers.

I am jealous/envious of Sri Lanka's batsman. I wish we had one or two of them in our team. Our team would be so much better with Dilshan or Samaraweera in there.

The trouble with our team is that our country has such a small population and limited player depth. So all of these retirements of a couple of years ago have hurt us more than they would any other country. Why did Craig McMillan have to retire I thought he was good.

Couldn't Fleming have played for a few more seasons.

With those two in the team we would be a decent side. We should nurture our elite players and do whatever it takes to make them happy and secure in the top team so that they can play until they are like 38 or something. I realise this is past the useful shelf life of most players but perhaps in the last few years they could just play tests and not any ODIs.

Anyways I am desperately searching for solutions

I was overseas and away from New Zealand during the mid and late nineties during the years of Chris Cairns and company. Were we more competitive then? How long have we been ranked 7th for?

Tbf, everyone struggles against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, so it's nothing to get too concerned over. Haven't failed to win a series there since Pakistan rolled them in March 2006. You're looking at comfortable series wins over South Africa, England, India and Pakistan. It'll be nice to see New Zealand put up a fight tomorrow, but there won't have been many who expected them to compete in this particular series.

 

[Zinzan]

Tbf, everyone struggles against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, so it's nothing to get too concerned over. Haven't failed to win a series there since Pakistan rolled them in March 2006. You're looking at comfortable series wins over South Africa, England, India and Pakistan. It'll be nice to see New Zealand put up a fight tomorrow, but there won't have been many who expected them to compete in this particular series.

Precisely the point I've been trying to make.

Despite the expectations some seem to have of NZ for this tour, the reality is they've probably punched above their weight in this match so far.

It's actually been a reasonably gutsy effort from the boys IMO.
Pretty much every factor is against them from the heat to the pitches and quality of bowlers they have to face, not to mention the 8-9 players with crook guts, so a draw would be a pretty honorable result from here.

Still picking SL to roll us within 50 overs weather permitting.

 

[Bahnz]

The weather forecast is depressingly good for the last day. Humid and cloudy this morning with only a 60% chance of precipitation this afternoon. Hope Ryder's feeling better.

 

[Migara]

Game will get washed away. It's looking murky here with high winds.

 

[Hurricane]

Precisely the point I've been trying to make.

Despite the expectations some seem to have of NZ for this tour, the reality is they've probably punched above their weight in this match so far.

It's actually been a reasonably gutsy effort from the boys IMO.
Pretty much every factor is against them from the heat to the pitches and quality of bowlers they have to face, not to mention the 8-9 players with crook guts, so a draw would be a pretty honorable result from here.

Still picking SL to roll us within 50 overs weather permitting.

Props to the boys for avoiding the following on and posting 250+ against Murali and Mendis. But I would be more forgiving if we lost all of our wickets to M&M. I know their seamers are international quality - but I thought Chaminda Vaas was better. And I think there are more challenging fast bowlers going around on the international circuit and we were getting out a little bit too easily I thought to the seamers. Maybe it is because they were crook?

My concern is two fold
1) I am linking our performance in this series to our performances against Australia and South Africa and England in england recently where in all three series it didn't look like we belonged. Things could have been worse against India I guess and I was proud we drew a couple. I will take it on board that even South Africa struggled in Sri Lanka and will lower my expectations (I was hoping for a draw).

2) I read and hear about us being put into a tier two of cricket because we can't give the big boys a good game.
Here is a quote...
"Dave Richardson, the ICC's general manager for cricket, has suggested a two-tier structure for Test cricket, based on teams' strength, to make the format more competitive. Such a move, Richardson said, would create a context for Test cricket, one of the challenges for the ICC going forward.

"It's an important point that Test cricket should be played against teams that are at least competitive with each other," Richardson told Cricinfo. "Ideally, you want to have the top teams playing against each other, and then teams of lesser standing playing against each other, maybe in a second division or a lesser competition such as the Intercontinental Cup. I think that's the challenge for the ICC, that it can create some sort of context for Test cricket both at the higher level and at levels below that." "

 

[Craig]

Game will get washed away. It's looking murky here with high winds.

Is this monsoon season in Sri Lanka?

 

[inbox24]

Dire.

 

[James]

Mahela Jayawardene comes on and gets a wicket with his 2nd ball. What the hell

 

[straw man]

2) I read and hear about us being put into a tier two of cricket because we can't give the big boys a good game.
Here is a quote...
"Dave Richardson, the ICC's general manager for cricket, has suggested a two-tier structure for Test cricket, based on teams' strength, to make the format more competitive. Such a move, Richardson said, would create a context for Test cricket, one of the challenges for the ICC going forward.

"It's an important point that Test cricket should be played against teams that are at least competitive with each other," Richardson told Cricinfo. "Ideally, you want to have the top teams playing against each other, and then teams of lesser standing playing against each other, maybe in a second division or a lesser competition such as the Intercontinental Cup. I think that's the challenge for the ICC, that it can create some sort of context for Test cricket both at the higher level and at levels below that." "

Richardson's suggestion is staggeringly stupid if it means separating the top 8 sides - there've already been a few threads discussing that proposal. If the ICC were to implement it it would pretty much destroy test cricket in a few countries (most likely including NZ) - unfortunately we don't have much say in what the ICC do.

Hrmmm, two more down already this morning - this match looks to be going only one way. Will be surprised if we can survive until tea TBH.

 

[inbox24]

A left armer coming around the wicket to a left hander? Why? Do they not want to get wickets?

 

[Howsie]

Hmmmm. Did Taylor even hit that, I don't think he did?

 

[straw man]

1) I am linking our performance in this series to our performances against Australia and South Africa and England in england recently where in all three series it didn't look like we belonged.

Wouldn't say we looked like didn't belong against England - even in England we should have won a test. I know the sort of collapse we managed to lose there is exactly what good sides don't do, but we were still competitive *most* of the time.

May be just an incurable optimist but genuinely believe NZ (test) cricket reached its lowest point a little ago, after the departure of various senior players (most obviously Fleming) and loss of players to the ICL, and we're gradually on the improve now.

 

[Athlai]

Only Jeets scoring runs would make me feel better now.

 

[Somerset]

Mahela Jayawardene comes on and gets a wicket with his 2nd ball. What the hell

Listening to it on radio, couldn't believe it - its meant to happen in International Cricket Captain but not real life!

 

[Athlai]

Na wonderful plan, Taylor is at his weakest when he feels like the bowlings easy. Vs. Murali and Mendis he'd be concentrating hard, then on comes Jayawardene and he relaxes and gets himself out.